


Sending A Bigger Monster

by Xavier_Rall



Category: Hellsing, Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossover, Gen, Horror, Law Enforcement, Monster World, Moral Ambiguity, Mystery, Supernatural Elements, Vampires
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-10
Updated: 2018-05-10
Packaged: 2018-08-14 06:10:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 51,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8001427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xavier_Rall/pseuds/Xavier_Rall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While in pursuit of her most dangerous target yet, Seras Victoria falls through a magical doorway left over from Millenium that lands her in "Tokyo Ghoul" Japan. She must find her way home, but before that, she must navigate a twisted world of ghouls and humans; as the biggest monster in an entire world of them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First Vampires, Now Ghouls (Not That Kind)

**Author's Note:**

> I don`t own Hellsing or Tokyo Ghoul. I only own this story and my own original characters.

Chapter 1: First Vampires, Now Ghouls (Not That Kind)

**Seras POV**

Seras Victoria knew something wasn`t right from the very moment she woke up.

The reason being that she appeared to be lying in an abandoned building in some city, when she distinctly remembered last being in a European castle. Also, a quick look around the warehouse revealed to her everything that was in writing, from scraped stickers on boxes, to labels on rusted equipment, to peeling posters on the walls, all of it, was written in Chinese.

_Japanese, actually, mon cher,_ said her familiar, Pip Bernadotte.

Also, she noticed that, judging from way the sun was shining, it was late afternoon. Which was odd, considering it was literally the dead of night only moments before.

When she had gotten up earlier that evening from a satisfying sleep, she soon learned from Sir Integra that they had new intelligence on the location of a nest of vampires that had somehow slipped under their surveillance for years. Known as the Coven, all that Hellsing knew about it was that they were a splinter group of the destroyed Neo-Nazi group, Millennium, who were led by a mysterious leader that claimed to be the vampiric descendant of the infamous vampire, Countess Bathory. Seras was then ordered to their latest known coordinates: which happened to be an old castle in France, one that the Nazis had used during the Second World War. The immediate concern was the idea that an old Nazi fortress being used by a splinter of Millennium did not bode well for anyone, especially Hellsing.

Hellsing still had yet to fully recover from the Zeppelin Incident over ten years ago, where the organization was nearly destroyed and its trump card, Alucard, was silenced, with no indication that he would ever return. In the years since, both Britain and Hellsing had undergone extensive reconstruction, and, for a while, Seras was literally Britain`s only line of defense against supernatural threats, like vampires. It was years before Hellsing was rebuilt to the point that Seras wasn`t needed on every field mission that Hellsing operated. The thought that a new group had arisen with the power to potentially destroy Hellsing completely was terrifying.

Thus, Seras had departed, alone, to confront the threat, with a fully loaded Harkonnen Mk. III cannon at her disposal.

Flying upon the castle in the dead of night on shadowy wings, she gave no quarter to every member of the undead she found, blasting them to bloody smears and dismembered limbs with her oversized gun. They tried to fight her, firing guns and rockets from hallways, around corners, and from behind obstacles, and launching ambushes from above and below, sometimes crashing through the walls, ceiling and floor to get at her. Tried being the key word, as everyone she fought fell.

Then she came to that dungeon.

In that room, she saw an entire room covered in glowing, blood-written runes and symbols, as well as three circles of chanting vampires, with one male in the center who could be nothing other than the Coven`s vaunted leader. She then emptied the last of her ammunition killing the vampires in the room, including "Count Bathory."

At least, that`s what she thought happened, for as soon as he went down, the runes flashed into a blinding light, and she thought she could his form still moving…

And now, here she was, in God knows where, without her guns, without a way to contact Sir Integra, since she didn`t have the telepathic link that Alucard had shared with the woman, or her phone number, since her phone that she brought that had a direct line to Integra`s office wasn`t working, and no idea how on Earth she even got to wherever **here** was.

Then, she heard a scream from below. The scent of blood followed.

Rushing over to the window, looking down, she saw a young girl, bleeding from wounds all over her body, guaranteeing her death from blood loss. And Seras had no idea what was looming over the girl in predatory fashion. What Seras saw wasn`t a vampire, seeing as its eyes were red and black, it had what looked like two green tentacles coming out of its waist, and wore a half-mask across the lower half of its face with a biohazard symbol on it. The two were both yelling in Japanese, but Seras easily recognized the diminishing cries for help from the human girl, as well as the taunts from the _thing._

Seras decided to figure out her situation later, and deal with the urgent monster problem **now**.

**Michi POV**

This was how it would all end for her. In the belly of a ghoul.

The creatures that prowled the streets of Tokyo at night she had heard looked, sounded, and acted just like humans, until they had you alone, vulnerable, and far away from help. Then they would reveal themselves for the man-eating, red-eyed monsters that they were. They were mankind`s nightmares made real, the bane of all human existence, which was held back only by the heroic efforts of the Commission of Counter-Ghoul, whose Investigators had spent years of training with the specific purpose of finding and killing them.

But, ghouls had never concerned her. After all, she was the daughter of First Class Investigator Matsuzaka Akumo, who was well known for, after receiving death threats on his family from the S-rated ghoul Scythe, went on to not only kill that same ghoul, but also his entire gang, keeping ghouls even farther away from the man and his children. And, since she was smart enough to never go anywhere with any suspicious company. And, considering how popular she was at school, she was never really alone anywhere outside of home.

This ghoul, however, had convinced a cab driver to drop her friends off in the middle of nowhere, leading to him chasing herself and her friends throughout the warehouse. Now, she lay here, bleeding and broken, and this ghoul, who called himself Biohazard, salivating over her.

"HEEELLLPP! Somebody please! Anybody!" She screeched.

"Sorry, bastard girly," Biohazard sneered. Your scary daddy`s nowhere close enough to save you. By the time he`s here, all that will be left of you is a pile of bloody dust."

"Please, don`t kill me. I beg of you," she said, as her vision began to blur.

"I will most certainly kill you. This is payback for what your Pops did to Scythe and the crew. I was the last survivor, and that leaves me with the responsibility of avenging his death. Taking his precious daughter will be sweet. Almost as sweet as y-"

He exploded. Or rather, something came down on top the ghoul and tore him apart into mincemeat and a shower of blood in such rapid succession, she could only think his body has spontaneously gone ka-boom.

What stood in the ghoul`s place was something even more terrifying.

She soaked in the creature`s whole appearance. The distinctly female figure, messy blond hair, dried-blood colored military uniform, leggings and boots, impeccable white glove on her right hand, a writhing red and black _thing_ in place of her left arm, and, most of all, her glowing red eyes. No black, like with a ghoul. The strangest thing, however, was the look in those eyes.

Concern. Sadness. A little bit of confusion.

Now she was confused. Why would a ghoul show concern for a human?

"It doesn`t look like I arrived in time to save you. I am sorry." Michi recognized the English words that came from its mouth.

"Why?" she asked. "Why would a ghoul try to save me?"

Now the confusion in the other`s face was more apparent. "Ghoul? No, I`m not a bloody ghoul. I`m a vampire. And the reason I saved you is because it`s my job."

_Vampire? Seriously? Did this ghoul get hit on the head by a quinque too hard? And this is its freaking JOB?! What the hell is wrong with this thing?_

"No, I did not get hit too hard with whatever a quin-something-or-other is, yes, this IS my freaking job, and the only thing wrong with me is that I don`t know what the bloody hell is happening to me right now," the self-proclaimed vampire said.

Michi was shocked, to say the least. "C-can you, like, read my mind?"

"Yes. And you`re running out of time. I can tell that you would rather not die, but it doesn`t look like you have much choice. And, since you`re a girl, I can`t make you a vampire like me even if you wanted. But, if I do drink your blood, I can take you into myself, and become my familiar, so that you can continue existing. However, it has to be your choice."

This was all a little much for the young lady, as her fading mind tried to comprehend what was being said, but she heard 'continue existing,' so she reached her hand out in desperation, before it fell…

**Seras POV**

With her flesh-and-blood right hand, she caught the girl`s outstretched hand, reflecting on how much the same it was to when Alucard proposed vampirism to her all those years ago. She then leaned forward, next to her ear.

"Before I do it, can you tell me your name?" Seras whispered.

The girl struggled to open her mouth, whimpering out two words, "Michi Matsuzaka," remembering the western-style of given name coming first, then family.

"My name is Seras Victoria, vampire to the Hellsing family."

Then, Seras sank her teeth into the girl`s now-willing neck.

Then, she knew everything that she needed to know about the place in which she found herself. She now knew about the ghouls, the human-shaped cannibalistic monsters, and the CCG that hunted them. She knew about Tokyo, and its twenty-three wards. She knew about the ongoing war between humans and ghouls.

She also learned about the rest of the world, that the time was correct, but the history was missing something big. Then she realized.

The Zeppelin Incident. The accounts given to the public about what really happened were distorted, but the entire world could not afford to have missed it, the terrorist attack that caused more death in one night than any natural disaster, and more than any war aside from the two World Wars. Just about everyone had heard of it.

Michi knew nothing about it. On top of that, all history since 2000 had been replaced by the knowledge of a War on Terror led by the United States after a terrorist attack called 9/11 involving the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Also, the urban legends of vampires and Hellsing that had sprung up in the wake of the Zeppelin Incident were also not to be found in her mind.

Blood told no lies, and Seras knew that this girl was no ignorant lout, but she still had a hard time believing what Michi was telling her through her blood. Seras was done feeding, as she felt the girl`s presence inside her. Ultimately, Seras could only come to a single conclusion:

"I`m in a bloody alternate universe. Sir Integra is not gonna be happy about this."


	2. A New Existence

Chapter 2: A New Existence

**Unknown POV**

His hunger had driven him to go hunting now, right in the middle of the day. It was an event that he both loved and dreaded. He loved it because this was the time that made him feel most alive, in a world that would deny him his right to live. It was also the time he feared the most, for it was also the time when he would likely run into those that hunted ghouls: the doves or other, stronger ghouls. He`s faced a few Investigators on a couple of occasions, but he`s never stuck around long enough to get into a serious confrontation. The first and only time he actually fought with a pair resulted in the rookie losing his hand, and the senior taking off his arm. He`s had the even greater misfortune of meeting cannibal ghouls twice – and those events made him want to avoid other hungry ghouls even more than the doves; at least the humans wouldn`t eat him alive.

And so, now he was patrolling the back alleys and side roads, looking for some unfortunate human to ambush, that way he could get his meal quickly and quietly without getting any unwarranted attention. He made sure to wear his dark shoes, sweatpants and black hoodie in order to keep hidden better in the shadows, and he continued to walk along quietly.

He could hear his stomach growling, and feel the hunger gnawing at him. He didn`t believe that there was a single human alive that could possibly understand this pain. A pain so great that it could drive one irreversibly insane. He had seen it happen to his own brother, whose hunger drove him so crazy that he attacked and killed his sister before he even realized what he had done. He killed himself as a result.

He was not eager to have that happen to him.

And it appeared that salvation was at hand, because he smelled a human nearby.

Dashing in closer, he saw that the smell was of a petite teenaged girl wearing a school uniform. She appeared to be taking a shortcut on the way home. Now, there was a good reason not to attack and eat her, most notably the fact that, if she didn`t get home, people would come looking. And if doves decided to get involved, then he, in turn, could be hunted down and killed.

But, instinctual hunger won out, drowning his mind with the thought of food before his rational mind could even formulate such a thought. He sneaked in closer and closer as she walked along, completely oblivious to his stalking.

Then, finally, after coming within twenty feet of her, and smelling no one else nearby, he leaped out of his hiding place into the air, his koukaku kagune emerging from his shoulder, his kakugan flaring, and his voice peeling the air in sadistic laughter. His trajectory took him into the air, and he came right down on top of the girl, just as she was turning towards him, with shock and surprise in her eyes. He loved it, the look of fear in the eyes of his prey. After all, what self-respecting predator wouldn`t? And before she could even scream, his koukaku had already pierced her gut, cutting off any sound she could otherwise make.

Landing on top of her, now given a closer look, he could tell that coming out here at this time of day had been well worth it. The girl had long, glossy black hair cleaned and combed to perfection, with a delicate face, shining dark eyes, full lips, and a slender, but well-endowed figure. She was the very picture of feminine beauty in his eyes, and the perfect meal to boot.

"I am sure as hell gonna enjoy eating you, bitch," he whispered predatorily, as he pulled out his kagune and standing up. It was a voice he loved to use, paired with his slasher smile as it always solidified the prey`s feeling of fear right before they died. He couldn`t wait to see it.

"Oh right, I`m already dead," the girl suddenly said, the fear replaced by a calm look of realization.

Now he was confused. She was already dead? Did she mean to say that she was dead before he had even attacked her, because he was certain she was dead now, what with a kagune through the stomach and all. What the hell was she talking about?

That`s when she suddenly decided to stand up, and then she smiled. "I guess I still haven`t gotten used to that fact, haven`t I, Mistress?"

Now _he was_ starting to get all creeped out, stepping back a few paces, unable to take his eyes away from the spectacle playing out in front of him. A girl who should be bleeding out to death on the pavement was now standing and walking as if losing several major organs in the most horrifying moment of one`s life was an everyday occurrence. And, who was this Mistress she was talking about?

Then she spoke again, but it wasn`t the girl`s original voice that came out. "Don`t fret over it, it took me a while to fully accept the idea that I was one of the undead, and there are still times that I can`t quite shake the feeling that I`m still human." This new voice was deeper, echo-like, older, and chilled him to the bottom of his heart. That`s when things when from creepy to full-blown horror show.

At first he thought he was hallucinating, when he saw the blood the girl spill suddenly start seeping and flowing _back toward her_. Then, if that wasn`t enough, it was even literally floating off of his clothing and his kagune back to the girl, mending her wounds and even her clothing. That`s when her left arm suddenly melted into some kind of black and red shadowy, flowing substance, which swirled and spun around her in the air, surrounding and engulfing her. Throughout it all, what kept him fixed in place was _her predatorily smiling face_. When her eyes blinked, he swore they became glowing red. And those eyes fixed him with a gaze of pure bloodthirsty glee. He felt akin to a mouse hiding from a cat, a rabbit hiding from a wolf, or a helpless human before a powerful, hungry ghoul.

As the supernatural storm of blood and shadows dissipated, he heard the g-, the _thing_ in front of him suddenly chuckle, and say to itself, "So this is what Master felt like, when he dealt with freaks and trash like you." Then, when the storm vanished, he saw, in place of a frail Japanese human schoolgirl, a red-eyed, blond-haired monster of a young European woman, clad entirely in clothing the color of dried blood, from her boots and stockings to her military-like jacket and miniskirt, the only article of clothing not sharing the scheme being its right-hand glove, and the left arm looked to be molded out of the shadow-matter he saw earlier, with strands and streams appearing to still come from it.

It spoke once more, in that terrible voice, "It`s trash like you that my Master couldn`t stand, and that I find I cannot find myself tolerating. So, would you like to do me the honor of sating my thirst?" Then she gave a bare-toothed smile, and- oh my God, are those _FANGS?!_

That was the last straw. He immediately turned tail and bolted, his hunger completely forgotten, every part of his being screaming at his muscles to take him as far away from the monstrous apparition as possible, while his voice sent his screams and pleas. He began to sprint, putting any human runner to shame, dispelling his kagune in order to gain more speed. He turned corners, leaped over fences, and continued to run with all his might, hoping and praying to God that he would be spared, promising to do anything in order to live through the next hour. He turned the next corner-

And _something_ gripped his ankle, tripping him onto his face.

Now his screaming became rather girlish screeching, as his hands and his again-dispelled kagune gripped at anything and everything around him, the walls, the dumpster, the very ground itself, causing his fingers to bleed and straining his muscles as he desperately tried to claw away from this unnatural monster.

"Stop yelling, you`re liable to wake the dead." Then teeth latched onto his neck, and he faded into oblivion.

**Michi POV**

"Mom! I`m home!" Michi shouted, as she walked through the front door of her family`s little home. It was comfortably large, big enough for her two parents and younger brother Mamiru, with its two floors and three bedrooms. Her older sister, Mika, was walking in their father`s footsteps to become a CCG Investigator, and so, was learning to live on her own in an apartment in a different part of the 14th Ward, closer to the city`s center, and the Home Office.

"Hello! I`m in the kitchen right now!" her mother called. "Wait a moment, and I`ll come right on over."

Michi put down her bags and looked up to see her mother come and embrace her. "It`s nice to have you home, dear. I see you came back alright. Anything special happen at school today?"

Michi shook her head. "No, Mom, school was pretty much the same as usual. Tanaka and Oikawa are still getting it on, everyone`s still gossiping about the desk incident a few days ago, and Mami is still my best friend as usual. Oh, although on the way home today, I had a ghoul for snack. Tasty."

Her mother chuckled at the comment. "Still going with that old joke I see. It doesn`t surprise me anymore like the first time did. Listen, I know you also want to be a ghoul investigator like your father, but seriously, enjoy your time as a teenager, and go doing stupid stunts like your father did when he was your age."

"Weren`t those the same stupid stunts that got you two to meet and fall in love?" Michi inquired. "If it weren`t for your knight in shining armor, I wouldn`t be here."

"True," her mother acquiesced. "But, seriously, ghouls are dangerous monsters, and it takes strong people like your father to keep us safe from them. I don`t know what I would do if I lost any of you, but I thank God that you`re all still fine. So, I won`t stop you if you decide to go down this road, just do me the favor of going down it less recklessly than your father, like your sister is doing. Okay?"

Michi hugged her mother tight. "Okay."

After separating, she picked up her bags again and went into her room to do her homework. It used to be a little more cramped, since she shared the room with her sister. Now, it all belonged to her, from its one solitary bed to the computer desk to the bookshelf and the clothes drawers. She closed the door behind her and locked it.

We both know it would be better for your mother if she didn`t know that she`s already lost you.

Michi turned around and saw _her_ lounging on her bed. Or at least, that`s what her eyes showed in her mind`s eye. In fact, her eyes weren`t even hers anymore, let alone her body. It all belonged to _her_.

And that she didn`t know that every time you make a joke of consuming a ghoul, that you are actually telling a half-truth, said her vampiric mistress, Seras Victoria. You may need to consider not making them anymore if your father starts catching on to us and your mother connects the dots somehow.

I understand, Mistress, Michi replied sullenly, sitting down at her desk and taking out her books. I guess I`m still a little unused to this new change of pace. It`s been a month and all, and everything that I`ve learned over its course I`m still finding hard to let sink in. I mean, this world was crazy enough with the ghouls, but now vampires from alternate worlds? That`s a new level of weird I don`t know if this world is ready to handle.

Be glad your world doesn`t have to, Seras replied. I do believe that you can still remember when I showed you my memories of Alucard and Millennium?

Michi stiffened. Even after all this time, they were filled with images that she`d never forget.

A vampire dressed like a priest, surrounded by an entire town of zombies- ghouls Seras called them, although zombie fit in Michi`s mind better, since she had a different image attached to the word "ghoul." Alucard appearing from the night, annihilating the swarm and vampire before turning her, after she agreed willingly. The first battle with Father Anderson. The invasion of the Valentine brothers into the Hellsing mansion. The slaughter of the SWAT officers in South America. The attack by Millennium upon the mansion. The confrontation with Zorin Blitz. Drinking Pip Bernadotte`s blood. Coming to Sir Integra`s aid in London. Alucard`s Level Zero Release, and battle with Iscariot. Walter`s betrayal. Storming the Zeppelin. Battling the werewolf Captain. Blasting the Major in half with a tank`s main gun. Flying out with Sir Integra from the ship back to the manor, over a smoking city.

And those memories were only from Seras` first few months as a vampire. That`s not including the years of blood and gore that followed, where Seras embraced her vampiric nature more fully, allowing herself to drink more blood and take on more familiars, including a cast-off Millennium werewolf experiment and a shape-shifting demon that was foolishly summoned by occult-studying college students.

All in the service of a woman with a will to put steel to shame, one that could bend any monster to do her bidding. One Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing.

And all of which happened because of a chance encounter with a genuine monster that made even the most bloodthirsty ghouls of her world appear tame as lambs. The vampire Alucard, who was once the one and same Dracula of Bram Stoker`s classic horror novel.

She shook her head and slapped her cheeks. She had homework in Biology, History, and Mathematics. And she couldn`t very well get her head in the game if her mind was filled with someone else`s memories, now could she?

Mistress-

It`s Seras Victoria, schoolgirl, she replied. Don`t call me Mistress.

Yes, Mi- I mean, Seras Victoria. Could you leave me be for now? I have homework right now.

Homework. Those were simple days indeed. But, then again, they were a pain when I was human, so I pity you.

Thanks. That means so much to me, Michi replied sarcastically. She then went back to work.

**Akumo POV**

When he finally got home, dinnertime was already going on. His beautiful wife Sakura had cooked spiced chicken with beans and vegetable greens. Both Michi and Mamiru were seated there, calmly eating alongside her. "Hey, I`m alive, and I`m home," he said.

"Welcome home, honey," Sakura said, with a smile.

"Hey Dad, long time no see," Michi mumbled, food in her mouth.

"DAD! Did you kill any ghouls today? Huh? Huh?!" Mamiru exclaimed excitedly.

"Nice to be home everyone," Akumo replied. "And no, Mamiru, I didn`t get to kill any ghouls today. They were all hiding too well for us to notice today. Although, there is something that I have to tell you all."

Everyone`s eyes turned toward him. He sighed, rubbed his eyes, and began.

"This is something the Home Office is going to announce tonight, but I want you all to hear it from me. Over the past month, there have been a series of over 40 killings all over the ward. We`ve come to the conclusion that all of these killings are the work of a single ghoul."

Sakura gasped, Mamiru was in awe, and Michi didn`t react at all.

"The reason we believe this is so is because all of the victims were similarly killed-" _more like played with, torn to pieces, and then their throats ripped out-_ "and all of the victims were ghouls."

Now, even Michi reacted, looking up with widened eyes, while Mamiru went bug-eyed with excitement and Sakura became absolutely pale.

"That means we are dealing with a cannibalistic binge eating ghoul. To date, we can`t say that this ghoul has killed any humans yet, but it`s bound to, sooner or later. For now, until Investigators encounter it and gauge its strength, we are giving the ghoul the codename Jack the Ripper, and it is an S-rated ghoul. More investigators from the Home Office will be brought in to help in the investigation. What all this means for this family, is that I`m setting a curfew. No one outside after dark, and everyone home by 6. Am I clear?"

Everyone said their yesses and nodded. Dinner continued to its conclusion without much more conversation. He also continued quietly eating his meal, contemplating what he`d been seeing over the past month.

It all started when he investigated the scene where two teen girls had been brutally murdered in a warehouse by a ghoul. The girls were friends of Michi, and the ghoul was a former member of Scythe`s gang, Biohazard. They found him in worse condition than the girls. He didn`t think anything more of it than a random dispute between ghouls, but then they began to find more dead ghouls, similarly mutilated and killed. What made all these cases so strange was the lack of blood at the scenes. If a body was torn to shreds, the blood would be everywhere, even if a ghoul managed to consume most of the body. Here, however, they were able to find almost the entirety of every murderer ghoul, but most of the blood was gone, as if this ghoul was more interested in blood than flesh. Thus, at the workplace, people had another name for this ghoul than Jack the Ripper:

_Dracula._

**Seras POV**

Well, _mon cher_ , it looks like you were right, said Pip. These CCG doves appear to have been on to you for some time.

What do we do, Mistr- I mean Seras? asked Michi. What if Dad finds out about you? About me?

Seras mulled over these words and thought. I doubt the CCG has ever gone up against vampires before, and certainly haven`t gone up against anything of my caliber. I highly doubt they can kill me. Still, you need to know, Michi, that you could have simply refused my offer and let yourself die. Now, you`ll have to deal with the reality of living out your un-life without your family someday, when I finally return to my world. Wherever I go, you must follow, forever a part of me. That`s what it means to be a vampire`s familiar.

What if you never get back? Michi asked.

I will find some way to occupy my time, as will you. I might get myself a fledgling to train. Eternity is such a long time. In the meantime, I know that when we confront the CCG, I will make certain to set the record straight. Don`t forget, you aren`t the only familiar I`ve acquired in this world. And although these ghouls are monsters, one thing we`ve both learned is that they have souls just the same as humans. This means that not all ghouls have to be evil, there must be those that desire nothing more than to live normal lives. Starting tomorrow, we`ll be looking for them. And we will make the first steps to finishing this endless war.


	3. Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind

“Speech”

_Thought_

Telepathy

Chapter 3: Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind

**Renji POV**

Suffice it to say that, tonight, there were a myriad of very logical reasons for Rank 2 Junior Investigator Renji Fujiyama to be shaking in his boots, with a heart that felt like a pulse-pounding block of ice that threatened to leap out of his mouth at a moment`s notice. Reason number one: tonight was the night of his first patrol as a Ghoul Investigator in the CCG, so he had little to no idea of what to expect to happen. Two, he was patrolling in the 10th ward, a part of Tokyo that he wasn`t familiar with, having grown up in the 20th ward. The second half of the second reason was that the 10th ward was next door to the 11th ward, which was widely reputed to be the most heavily ghoul-infested ward in Tokyo. The third reason was the Investigator he had been partnered with, one Associate Class Investigator Daisuke Nakadai. This man was infamous in the CCG for two reasons: being a magnet for ghouls – rumor had it that he would be attacked by ghouls at least once a week – and was extremely sadistic towards the ghouls he captured, especially young ghouls.

All of that paled considerably in comparison to the fourth and final reason that he was nearly wetting his pants instead of shivering with excitement.

He had been assigned to the 10th ward, which, as of a little more than a month ago, had become the stomping ground of the newly infamous S-rate Ripper, known in-house in the CCG as Dracula.

This ghoul was both a mystery and a grave danger. Although his kill count only included ghouls, he had still slaughtered close to four dozen that the CCG was aware of, and they had no idea if he had killed any humans yet, or how many at that if he had. Also, due to how much the bodies had been torn apart, it was nigh impossible to identify the victims beyond the fact they were ghouls, and the near-complete lack of blood at the scenes further added to the mystery of this ghoul. After all, it was far simpler to just eat the entire body rather than go through the trouble of drinking every last drop of blood in the body and NOT eat its flesh. What made this even more frustrating was the fact that the cause of death was nigh impossible to identify and each scene also bore no marks of a kagune`s usage. And the cherry on top of all this was the fact that since Ripper was known to have already killed dozens of ghouls, it was likely the ghoul had probably killed many more before popping up in the 10th ward, and the consumption of so much ghoul flesh (mainly blood from what they could tell) had likely made the ghoul even stronger than he was before his current rampage.

Ripper was a cannibal, a binge eater, and an unknown, thus unpredictable, entity. Although it was currently S-rated, many feared that this ghoul would become the next One-Eyed Owl – a SSS-rate terror upon Tokyo.

Renji shuddered. He had no plans tonight to-

“Hey, Rookie! Are you listening to me?!”

“GAH!” Renji screamed, suddenly snapping back to the reality of his stern superior`s weathered face leaning forward, glaring at him. “Seriously, Investigator Nakadai! Don`t scare me like that!”

“Feh,” Nakadai snorted. “I wasn`t even trying to scare yah. Believe, you`d know if I tried.”

“That`s not exactly a comforting thought, sir.”

“Know what I don`t find to be a comforting thought? A ghoul coulda speared you through the gut and then swallowed you whole from your thin glasses to your fat shoes before you bothered to look up and so much as notice there was a living thing standing in front of your nose. You cannot afford to let down your guard Fujiyama! Ever! That`s how many a good man lost his life! You got that?!” he roared at his subordinate.

Renji`s spine could have been swapped with a lead pipe and you wouldn`t have been able to tell the difference. “Y-y-yes, s-sir.”

Investigator Daisuke stood back up, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath through his nose to calm himself back down. He opened his eyes again, looking down at his subordinate partner. “Okay, what`s got your boxers all twisted up?”

Renji`s breath hitched for a moment. “Dracula.”

Not even Daisuke could stop himself from feeling a shred of sympathy for the rookie. “Yeah, I get it. No ghoul has gotten the CCG so riled up since the Owl first showed up. To be honest, I myself am more than a little nervous about the prospects of facing off against him. Or her, considering we can`t even tell its gender. Still, our job right now is to patrol these streets, find a man-eating monster or two, and put them down before they get to enjoy dessert. So chin up and let`s get to work!”

Renji gulped. “Yes, sir.”

**Michi POV**

That`s Associate Class Investigator Nakadai, isn`t he, Michi? Seras inquired of her familiar, sending a mental image to her. Seras was watching them from her rooftop vantage point about a kilometer away from them, but her third eye viewing them as clearly as in broad daylight from a few feet away.

Yes, Seras, Michi confirmed. He hasn`t changed at all since I last saw him a few months ago when I last visited the CCG`s 10th ward branch. Michi was currently enjoying a rare family movie night, as her father had a rare night off. However, it was Mamiru who had won the right to choose the evening`s entertainment, so the Matsuzakas were now gathered `round watching “Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust,” a rather apropos film for Mamiru`s tastes and utterly ironic to Michi, an irony she sadly couldn`t share with her family.

And he`s still as ugly a bastard as ever, Pip added, watching the unfolding events from within Seras` mind. That`s a face only a mother could possibly love. I`m glad I didn`t look like that broken rock face of a man when I first met you, _mon cher_ , or I never would`ve gotten where I am now.

Which is stuck for eternity inside your vampiric lover`s soul along with an angry, furious mob of man-eating monsters, Michi retorted.

Pip laughed at her comment. I know I`ve said it before, but you`ve got spunk, girl. Besides, I would rather deal with undead souls than that calculus mumbo jumbo you`re tackling in your school. It`s dangerous, but I know how to handle.

Same here, she replied. So, now`s when the rubber really hits the road, right, Mistress?

Yes, school girl, Seras replied. Time to see what the world really has to throw at me.

**Daisuke POV**

Tonight looked like it was going to be one of _those_ nights. One where the foreboding atmosphere produced by a moonless night, a slight, yet loud, breeze, and the random flash of a car`s headlights from the street crafted his sense of anticipation for some bloody action yet ultimately left him hanging. He and his rookie partner, which he requested on a whim to ease his boredom and give himself a little more of a challenge in life, had been walking around for what felt like ages and had yet to see hide or hair-

**SPLAT!!!**

He and Renji immediately jumped and about-faced to find a dead body on the ground behind them. It was lying face-up with its eyes open, revealing its kakugan, showing that it was a ghoul. They were quick to notice the letter on its chest, written in large, red, English lettering:

WANNA MEET? –RIPPER

They looked up in time to see a red figure suddenly disappear back into the office building`s upper floors.

“Come on!” Daisuke shouted at his subordinate. Immediately rushing through the building`s glass doors, while Renji immediately called for backup, citing a possible sighting of the S-rate Ripper at their location. He headed straight for the security desk, reaching into his coat to pull out his ID, when he noticed something was very wrong: the guards were all slumped in their seats. Going behind the desk, he noticed that the security monitors were all showing blank screens. Grabbing one of the guard`s radios, he also heard nothing but static. He gritted his teeth. If it was indeed Ripper they were dealing with, then they were either looking at an entire gang of especially sadistic ghouls or one very dangerous and intelligent ghoul who loved to toy with its specially chosen victims.

He then smiled at the thought. _Looks like I`ll get to have some fun tonight after all,_ he thought.

“Sir,” Renji reported behind him. “I`ve called the branch office. Help should arrive in fifteen minutes. We should also check with building security to find the ghoul.”

“Don`t bother with security,” Daisuke replied. “Ripper was here way before us. Knocked out the guards and shorted the feeds. We`re blind here, boy. And I`d bet my last Yen that Ripper has cased the whole joint and has a trap set up for us.”

“I wouldn`t quite call it a trap, Associate Class Nakadai,” an ethereally feminine voice suddenly called out.

They froze for but an instant. Then, slowly, they turned their heads towards the staircase which descended from the next floor up. At the top was a woman dressed in red.

“Well, I did kind of arrange all of this ahead of time so that we were all alone in private in a big office building and the invitation was more than a little abrupt and shocking so I guess you couldn`t help but think it was a trap. Sorry about that,” she continued, scratching the back of her head and looking none too sheepish.

Daisuke was more than a little unnerved by this girl. Taking into account her youthful face and well-endowed figure, he pegged her to be mid-20s at oldest. He also took note of her peculiar choice of attire, which seemed to be a military-type uniform jacket with a miniskirt, thigh-high ripped stockings and large boots, all colored in varying dark shades of red, like dried blood. Her right arm was mostly bare, with a white glove on the hand, while her left arm down to the fingertips were covered in a long, black and red sleeve. The features that were the clearest to him, however, were the girl`s deathly pale Caucasian skin, which, along with her short, spiky-bunned straw blond hair and British accent, indicated that she was a European, and her red ruby eyes.

Although it was rare, sometimes ghouls` kakugans manifested permanently. Although there was the even rarer case among ghouls that their irises turned red. This ghoul`s eyes were pools of fire, that, despite the carefree demeanor she was exhibiting, betrayed the look of someone who had been through Hell and didn`t come back out the same as going in. It was a look he had seen time and again on the faces of many people who had experienced a ghoul attack.

It burned him to the depths of his soul to be mocked by a monster daring to bear the same eyes.

What burned him the most was the fact that the ghoul appeared to be so arrogant that it wasn`t even wearing a mask.

He took a step forward, getting ready to unleash-

“Hey! I already have a lover! Get your head out of the gutter you playboy,” she blurted.

Daisuke`s thought process and forward progress immediately ground to a halt. She thought that he-

“Not you, the Casanova-wannabe you dragged along!” she shouted, pointing at Second Rank Fujiyama. “Bloody Dove, you just had to pick a ladies man for a rookie partner,” she said exasperatedly.

He spared a moment to send a withering glance at Renji, who immediately froze up again. “S-Sorry sir!” he spluttered. “It`s- well um- I guess- I didn`t really expect my first ghoul to be a really pretty girl, and Dracula on top of that-”

“What was that you called me?”

Daisuke immediately turned back toward the staircase to face the red monster, intent on not letting his guard down before her again.

She wasn`t there.

He began to panic. _Where did she go?_

“AAGGHH-”

Turning around again, he looked to see that the rookie had suddenly vanished into thin air. He immediately turned back toward the stairs, and there he saw the Ripper ghoul holding an unconscious Renji Fujiwara in its arms, bridal style. It set him down at the top of the stairs with care, like a lover laying his sleeping partner to rest on a bed. She stood back up.

“There. Now that the kiddies are put to bed, the adults can now talk.”

Daisuke was in shock. This thing had to be doing some kind of trick. Otherwise, he would have to accept the fact that, in the moments between when he was alternately shifting his focus between the positions of his subordinate and the ghoul, she had managed to silently move past him twice and snatch away Renji before he was even able to register her movement. He knew that ghouls were superhumanly quick thanks to their biology, and he had heard of instances where ghouls moved too fast for the Investigators to track, but this was when they were in an up-close melee, not standing apart at a good 20 meters apart with a stairway between them. He had never heard of a ghoul being even remotely this fast. Although she had yet to even show off her kagune, her speed alone indicated she was probably a SSS-rate.

A darkness began emanating from the girl`s black sleeve. She began walking towards him.

“I`ve been here for about a month now, and I have to say that I`m quite disappointed in the state of the world. When I first got here, I regarded the ghouls as nothing more than monsters, since the very first one that I saw was about to have a schoolgirl for dinner. So, I began scoping out the 10th ward, looking it up and down, making a mental map, and hunting down the man-eating monsters that haunted the nightmares of this world. Soon, two weeks had passed and I had slaughtered dozens.”

 _Oh God,_ he thought. _SSS-rate. This girl`s another One-Eyed Owl._ He now felt more afraid for his life than he had in decades. He knew that he was a strong Investigator, and he had faced down a number of strong ghouls in the past. However, he remembered seeing the footage of the Owl`s attacks on the CCG and why it was rated SSS. He knew that he would only ever face that thing with at least a strong partner at his side and an army at his back. He knew he had bouts of recklessness at times, but he knew where his limits lay.

The darkness was spreading behind the girl and up the walls. She was at the bottom of the staircase.

“Then, one night during my third week, I saw the dying body of a little girl. When I approached her, I learned that she was a ghoul. And she had witnessed her mother and father get brutally murdered by two men. Ghoul Investigators. It was then that I realized the truth about the ghouls- that they were living, loving beings like humans. That they had dreams and emotions just like humans. That not all of them became monsters by choice. And I was forced to remember once again that man can be just as monstrous as the hell spawn that walk the earth. This world has become stuck in a perpetual cycle of despair, vengeance, and death. One that will, one day, tear it asunder.”

And soloing a fight with a SSS-rated ghoul was beyond them. All he could do was watch this gho- no, demon- slowly, calmly, approach him with supernatural grace, as the darkness swallowed the lobby.

“So, I thought to myself, how do I break the cycle? How do I, an outsider, bring resolution to this eternal war? Then, I remembered something that my Master`s Master once said. I wasn`t there to hear it myself, but, paraphrasing her, she said that the most effective way to destroy a monster was to send a bigger monster.”

She stopped less than a foot from his face. Eyes had opened in the darkness, with bright red pupils, all staring at him. Daisuke was frozen in terror.

“And so, pass the word on to everyone. Tell them, Senior Officer Seras Victoria of the Hellsing Organization, No-Life Queen of the Vampires, hearby declares war on the monsters of Tokyo, be they human or ghoul, until such time as the humans and ghouls of Tokyo can find reconciliation. Effective immediately.”  
  
Then she showed her fangs.

He activated his quinques. She was literally right in front of his face, so he couldn`t possibly miss. He was able to keep one part of mind sane in this maddening situation, and it took advantage of this golden opportunity to slay this dragon right here, right-

They shattered. Both of his quinques, his will personified, Deimos and Phobos, had been speared, crushed, and snapped simultaneously by the very darkness that surrounded him, breaking apart like champagne glasses. He also belatedly noticed that his feet weren`t touching the ground, like he was being held up by some invisible force.

“I`ll forgive you this once, since I need you to be my messenger,” she told him, her voice echoing throughout the space of his mind. “But, I am very well aware of the kind of monster you are, Mr. Nakadai. Pray to God that you never meet me again. Or I will avenge that little girl whose mother you slaughtered.”

Her eyes flashed like stars, and she reached her hand forward.

His world went dark.

**Michi POV**

“Hey, Michi, either watch the movie or go to bed.”

Michi suddenly snapped awake at the sound of Mamiru`s voice. Watching the unfolding encounter with the Investigators through her Mistress` mind had proven far more horrifyingly entertaining than the animated vampire film playing out on the TV, which, although quite good for a vampire flick, didn`t even hold a candle to the reality that was Seras Victoria. “Oh, sorry, Mamiru.”

As she turned back to old anime flick, she decided to melodramatically sum up the night`s main event in just one thought directed at Seras:

The show has only just begun, hasn`t it?

Her mistress simply smiled.


	4. Unknowingly Caught in the Eye of a Growing Storm

Chapter 4: Unknowingly Caught in the Eye of a Growing Storm

**Hisao POV**

“Now, when it comes to teaching the World War II era, many Western educational institutions place emphasis on Germany`s atrocities when it comes to human rights abuses, particularly when it comes to the Holocaust, when the Nazi Party exterminated tens of millions of people in a quest for racial purity; particularly noting the six million Jews who were murdered during their reign.”

 _Who doesn`t know this BS already?_ Hisao groaned mentally. Although he personally liked learning about history, he did not particularly enjoy relearning the same lessons that he had learned by himself.

“While true and tragic at the same, these same institutions also fail to either notice or place emphasis on the fact that our own nation during those years was guilty of crimes of equal and even greater magnitude than our, shamefully, erstwhile allies-in-arms.”

 _No kidding. We were REALLY messed up in the head in those days._ He had read through every history book he could get his hands on in his home before discovering the wonderful world of the library, where he now spends the vast majority of his free time in reading anything that catches his random fancies, from computer manuals to shounen manga.

“In fact, after the Imperial Army won a more difficult battle than expected at Shanghai during the pre-World War II invasion of China, they vented their frustration on the next city they conquered, Nanking, by slaughtering over half of the city`s 600,000 residents, going so far as to rape tens of thousands of women and girls and then butchering them. This event-”

A hand was raised, interrupting the lecture and drawing the female professor`s attention - and Hisao`s - to the bespectacled girl sitting to his right.

“You have something to say, Iseri Nanami?” the teacher called, using the traditional method of addressing someone with their family name first.

“Yes, Shoji-sama,” Nanami said. “Although I understand the importance of us learning about such historical events as this, are you sure that we should be taught it in such gory detail?”

“First, I don`t think you`re one to complain about “gory details”, Nanami, considering the fact that I know you are an otaku with a particular interest for anime that have explicit violence as one of their main draws, and two, just like I`ve said in my lessons on Feudal Era Japan, I have a firm belief that history ought to be presented as is, without any romanticism, propaganda, or political correctness on the subject.”

_At least she`s honest, so thank the gods for that._

“Besides, who needs to be an otaku when the world is practically a real-life horror story? Who needs anime and manga when all you need is a newspaper or even a science documentary to get your daily scares?”

This random, uncalled-for comment came from the girl sitting directly behind Hisao. One Michi Matsuzaka, daughter of recently-promoted Associate-Class Ghoul Investigator Akumo Matsuzaka.

“Michi,” Yui Shoji said, annoyed. “No matter how insightful you may think you are, in order to speak in my classroom, you have to raise your hand and wait for permission to speak, just like everyone else. And, last I checked, that`s the way it`s done everywhere at every educational level. So, be polite and considerate, that is your last warning.”

“Yes, ma`am,” Michi droned.

As the teacher restarted her lecture, continuing where she left off with the Rape of Nanking, Hisao let his mind think about Michi.

Not too long ago, Michi was one of the most popular girls in the school, having rubbed shoulders with the likes of Masahiko Himura, star athlete in both track and archery, Chiasa Hara, daughter of one of the members of the Japanese Diet, and even Katsuo Ishikawa, a rumored member of the yakuza.

Then, she and her two dearest friends, Asuna and Reiko, were the victims of a ghoul attack that left the two dead and Michi in shock.

For a time, her social life had suffered, as her father, in paternal and professional paranoia, managed to get protection for Michi for the next two weeks while she grieved the loss of her friends, ensuring that only the truly concerned, or morbidly curious, would bother to approach and bother her. It didn`t help that people were afraid that, if they were associated with her, some ghoul stalker might come and eat them too.

Then, two weeks prior, came the CCG`s public announcement of the cannibalistic S-rated ghoul Ripper, a ghoul which hunted and killed its own kind.

This announcement had the odd effect of restoring Michi`s popularity, when rumor spread that the real reason Michi had survived the ghoul attack was because Ripper had saved her at the last minute, leading to just about everyone pestering her for any and all details she could give about the latest on the CCG`s Most Wanted. Despite her obvious discomfort, Michi was able to take advantage of everyone`s curiosity to reestablish her previous relationships with her various other friends and the other popular kids and assuage fears about being her friends. And now, everything was back to normal, with Michi again using smart comments in class.

Despite all this, Hisao just couldn`t stop that nagging feeling in the back of his head that there was something he was missing…

**Nanami POV**

BBBRRRRIIIIIIINNNNNGGGGGG!!!

 _FINALLY! I thought that would never end!_ Nanami thought exasperated, as she gathered up her textbooks and notebooks into her bag, got up and walked out the door towards the cafeteria, more than happy for the arrival of lunch break.

She had never really enjoyed history class, and never liked learning about bloody stuff in it either. Despite Ms. Shoji`s point that she enjoyed bloody anime, with the likes of Elfen Lied and Berserk among her favorites, she always possessed a very distinct understanding of the unreality of fiction – basically, she herself was not frightened, swayed, or otherwise affected by anything that she knew to be false. In real life, she could barely stand the sight of blood or any news regarding ghouls or bloodshed. Thus, unlike many others, she indulged in anime and manga because she could then pay witness to over-the-top acts of violence without suffering a complete mental breakdown.

Although, she also thought back on Michi`s comment that real life was like a horror manga. What with all the ghouls running around and eating people, and that Ripper causing a ruckus throughout the 10th Ward, she couldn`t help but admit that life did look like a horror manga. After all, she was regularly attending high school, the practically default setting for just about every other anime or manga EVER, man-eating human-looking monsters prowled the streets both day and night, a powerful and secretive, although public, organization was hunting them down, and, for the cherry on top, her classmate and friend Michi had gotten caught up in the madness.

“Something on your mind, Nanami?” came the concerned voice of Michi.

“Oh! N-n-nothing much,” she replied, flustered. “I was just thinking about what you said in class. About life being a horror manga.”

“Yeah, I did say that. I mean, with the stuff I`ve seen, it definitely would be most at home in a manga or one of those cheap B-rated horror flicks, wouldn`t you agree?”

“Yeah, heh,” Nanami laughed nervously, as the two walked into the cafeteria and headed toward a table that sat next to the windows. Sitting down, she opened her bento box to see a delicious array of salads, both vegetable and fruit, and saucy chicken inside. Wafting the scent of the food in delight, she said her thanks and began eating, taking a brief moment to see Michi`s equally delectable lunch before her.

“So, Michi,” Nanami started.

“Yeah?” she replied.

“Back on the earlier topic of life being like a manga, would you think you`re the protagonist in one?”

“Hmmm,” Michi thought. “In my case, maybe I am, but maybe not. If not the main character, then maybe a side character.”

“Come on, Michi,” Nanami groaned. “You`re beautiful, you`re smart, you`ve got big familial connections to a giant government organization that hunts monsters for a living, you even got attacked by one of those said monsters! If you`re not THE protagonist, you`re at least one of them, a major character, or the protagonist`s love interest.”

If Michi had had anything in her mouth at that moment, it would have been spit right back out all over Nanami as Michi guffawed at this last statement. “WHAT?! The love interest?!? What do you take me for, some random cut-and-paste anime girl that you can find anywhere that have no depth to them or any actually redeeming qualities?”

“Nononono, that`s not it at all!” Nanami exclaimed, waving her arms in front of herself (just like in anime) trying to calm down her flustered friend. “I mean, you strike me as the kind of person who would either be a big part of a story or, at least, have the attention of someone who is. Unlike me, who would probably be nothing more than your average disposable side character who gets a one-off appearance and then drops off the face of the Earth.” This last part was said in self-pity, as Nanami had never believed herself to amounting to much in life, what with her being an otaku and all, knowing well that it was frowned upon in general society.

“Hey, don`t sell yourself that short, Nanami,” Michi said, having gathered her nerves about her once more. “I mean, who knows. You could make a very interesting character in a story if done right. That`s something that can be said for everyone, because no two people are the same. That`s what makes humanity so beautiful after all. Everyone is precious.”

Nanami blinked. And then just laughed in spite of herself. “That was as corny and cheesy as a giant bowl of popcorn. But thanks. It helped.”

“Don`t mention it.”

Nanami then remembered something. “Oh yeah, I just finished reading this book recently, and I was wondering if you wanted to check it out.” She reached into her bag to grab it.

Michi was curious. “What is it?”

Nanami then pulled out the book, and, in a dramatic flair, plopped right onto the middle of the table. “Well, what do you think? I personally liked the author`s vision of swapping out ghouls for vampires and werewolves, and-” she stopped when she noticed her friend had frozen up completely, staring at the book with her eyebrows twitching. She looked up at Nanami.

“Tell me this is a joke. Please.” Michi`s eyes held Nanami`s with a look of equal parts disbelief and pain.

“Uhhh, no?” Nanami said, feeling nervous.

Michi then lifted the book and held it out from herself like it was bio-waste material, and rushed to the nearest recycling can for paper and dumped it inside with a sigh of relief.

Nanami`s jaw would`ve been clattering on the floor if it had been detachable.

“B-b-bu-but, WHY?” Nanami exclaimed. “I thought we were friends!!”

Michi placed her hands on Nanami`s shoulders and looked the glasses girl dead in the eye with a look that brokered no argument. “No self-respecting friends with so much as half a brain doesn`t make friends read _Twilight_. It makes them WANT to be eaten by ghouls.”

A purple-haired girl sitting at the table behind them suddenly and violently sneezed, jump-scaring the girl sitting opposite her to cry out and fall back and startling Nanami and Michi apart. There was food all over the girl`s uniform and hazelnut hair, showing that her friend had just taken a bite when the sudden sneeze had occurred.

“Ohmygod I`m so sorry!” the sneezer said, rushing over to her blown-over comrade. “Seriously, I have no idea what came over me!”

“It`s okay,” the girl replied, getting back up. “At least I`ve got spares at home, and I know how to wash out food from my clothes.”

She then looked at Nanami and Michi. “Sorry for that, you guys. My friend doesn`t normally get sick, so don`t mind us.”

“No no, it`s okay,” Nanami replied. “I mean, there was that one time that I literally slipped on a banana peel when I was rushing through the cafeteria for my next class.”

“Wait,” the purple-haired girl stated. “The story of the Banana Girl, from last semester, that was YOU?!”

“Yep,” Michi replied, putting an arm around Nanami`s waist. “And, fun fact: that was MY banana peel she slipped on! That`s how we met and became friends!”

“No kidding?” said the girl who`d been knocked backwards.

“Nope.”

The other two girls just gaped, looked at one another, and then just burst out laughing. Michi and Nanami couldn`t help but join in. After calming down, Nanami bowed and said, “Well, fellow accident victim, my name is Nanami Iseri. What`s yours?”

“Yoriko,” she said, bowing in return. “Yoriko Kosaka.”

“Michi Matsuzaka,” the banana peel-dropper said with her own bow. She turned to the purple-haired girl. “And you?”

“Touka,” she replied, returning the gesture. “Touka Kirishima.”


	5. It Starts With a Ripple

“Speech”

_Thought_

Telepathy

Chapter Five: It Starts With a Ripple

**Shinohara POV**

He knocked on the door in front of him.

“Who is it? I don`t want to be bothered,” a grouchier-than-usual voice sounded from behind the door.

“Marude, it`s me. I was thinking we could talk.”

“Shinohara? Okay, you`re not a bother, come on in.”

Special Investigator Shinohara opened the door, walked into the spacious, high-rise office, and closed it behind him. He looked over to see Division II Commander Special Investigator Marude having just gotten up from his desk and coming forward to meet him, with a relieved smile on his generally sullen and angry face. His own face was graced by its own, more jovial grin.

“It`s good to see you, Shinohara. Today has been nothing but a bore and a drag.”

“And you as well, old friend,” Shinohara replied.

“Please, sit down,” Marude insisted, gesturing to the comfortable office armchairs he`d set up just for these sorts of conversations with good comrades. Shinohara accepted graciously, lowering his well-built frame into the firmly soft furniture. He placed the briefcase in his hand next to the chair.

“Coffee?” Marude asked, walking toward the still-hot pot.

“No thanks, I only just ate,” Shinohara replied, waving his hand. “Besides, I don`t want to stain your furniture.”

“That`s alright, but I still feel like I need a cup myself,” Marude replied, pouring the scalding hot beverage into his mug. After taking a quick sip, he put in two sugars, stirred them about, and tasted again. Satisfied with the result, he went and took the seat opposite Shinohara.

“So, what brings you here?” Marude asked, placing his mug on the coffee table between them.

Shinohara`s face grew serious. “Ripper,” he said, a grave tone in his voice.

Marude`s face immediately lost all sense of cheer, and the man heaved a great sigh.

“Of course. Only the thing that`s been tormenting me for weeks would be the cause for getting you over here to talk to me in private.”

“I`m sorry, but we both know things haven`t gotten any better since it showed up out of the blue. Has Nakadai or Fujiyama said anything new?”

“Unfortunately, no. The two of them can only give us the same information that they gave us over a month ago, and their psychiatrists tell us that it`s very likely they`ll both be mentally scarred for life.” He got up again, walked to his desk, and he picked up the open files that lay there, spreading them out on the table for Shinohara to see. He looked through them again.

Marude began explaining. “When we had arrived at where Junior Investigator Fujiyama had called in for backup at a Ripper sighting, he was found at the top of a staircase knocked unconscious but otherwise unharmed. When debriefed later, Fujiyama was nervous-sounding, but told everything that had happened to him, from when the ghoul with the note on its chest fell splat behind him to his sudden blackout when he saw Ripper materialize right behind him.

“Nakadai, on the other hand, has suffered a complete mental breakdown. He was found at the scene physically uninjured, but curled up in a ball, whimpering and shaking like a small child, muttering about darkness, lots of red eyes, the One-Eyed Owl, etc., with his quinques broken into little pieces. But, he was able to give us a single, coherent statement, which goes, and I quote, ‘The No-life Queen of the Vampires declares war on the monsters of Tokyo, be they human or ghoul.’”

“So, what do our guys say this tells us about Ripper?” Shinohara inquired.

“We believe that these ‘Vampires’ may be a new ghoul organization that`s springing up, and Ripper is their leader, if this self-proclamation of being the No-Life Queen is anything to go by,” Marude replied.

“So, on top of Aogiri Tree making its presence felt in the 11th Ward, we now may be looking at another gang setting up shop next door in the 10th, led by a ghoul who`s powerful enough to take down an Associate-Class Investigator with ease, but also capable of destroying a man`s sanity without doing him any physical harm.” Shinohara could not help but feel even more nervous about Ripper. This ghoul had been terrorizing the 10th Ward`s ghouls for over a month, but this was the first instance when it has been well and truly connected to an attack on humans. If it was also bold enough to outright declare war, and on practically the whole city no less, let alone just the CCG, there was no telling what it would do next.

 “Also,” Marude spoke up again. “About Nakadai`s quinques. When we looked at the pieces, they had been arranged to form a message.” He pointed to the photograph with the message, written in English:

THE BIRD OF HERMES IS MY NAME, EATING MY WINGS TO MAKE ME TAME.

Shinohara looked, and then asked, “Do we know what that`s supposed to mean?”

Marude`s face became even more grave. “It`s a quote from the Ripley Scroll*, an alchemical text from medieval Europe.”

Shinohara`s eyebrows rose up. “Alchemical? As in alchemy? Turning lead into gold?”

“Yes,” Marude replied. “The Ripley Scroll in particular is about alchemy`s favorite mythical substance: the Philosopher`s Stone.”

“What does the Philosopher`s Stone have to do with a gang of ghouls? And why would they have any interest in it whatsoever?” Shinohara questioned.

“According to what my people have told me, alchemy is a dead science that focused on the transmutation of a substance into another, different element. Alchemists purportedly had three main goals: turning lead into gold, achieving immortality, and the creation of homunculi – artificial life.”

“In that case,” Shinohara mused, “I can definitely see how a ghoul, or anyone for that matter would be interested in alchemy. But, what exactly is the Philosopher`s Stone?”

“Supposedly, it was the substance that alchemists needed in order to achieve those very goals. All modern scientists are of the opinion it doesn`t exist. I agree with them.”

Shinohara mused over the new information, but he wasn`t convinced that alchemy played a serious role in Ripper`s plans, whatever they were. “Still, Marude, what more could this phrase even mean? It could be nothing more than a diversion, a mind game.”

Marude nodded. “We`ve already taken that into consideration. We`re not overly concerned with the phrase itself, but rather what it means about whoever wrote it.”

“What does it mean?”

“For one, how many people do you think have even heard of the Ripley Scroll?”

Shinohara pondered a moment. “Hardly anyone, certainly nobody I know. I mean, this is the first I`ve ever even heard of something like this.”

“Exactly,” Marude stated. “And the other thing is that the phrase was written in **English**. Do you know what that implies?”

Shinohara`s eyes widened. “A ghoul in Japan that`s able to speak fluent Japanese, understand and write fluent English, and educated well enough to draw references to obscure ancient texts on near-mythical subjects. That, combined with its obvious power and strength, means we are dealing with a ghoul that`s also highly intelligent and likely capable of organizing ghouls into a more effective fighting force.”

“Yes,” Marude affirmed. “This ghoul needs to be found and killed fast. Otherwise, we could soon be dealing with a second Aogiri Tree. And, because this Ripper is causing so much fuss in the 10th Ward, we can be certain that Aogiri Tree will, sooner or later, send someone to look into Ripper, to either recruit or kill her. If Ripper gets recruited by Aogiri Tree, than that organization will become that much more of a headache. If Aogiri kills her, then that`s one less headache.”

“But then if Ripper goes to war with Aogiri, then things will get even more hectic before,” Shinohara finished.

“Yes,” Marude said, morosely. “That`s why I`m having more Investigators sent to the 10th Ward, that way we can end this charade with Ripper once and for all. The media`s hounding us enough because of it and the Internet`s throwing up a firestorm because of her.”

“Hai,” Shinohara agreed. When information about the ghoul first got leaked, the CCG was forced to make a public statement regarding the Ripper before the media blew it out of proportion. Now, the Ripper ghoul had become something of a divisive figure on the Internet, with bloggers, YouTubers, and forums picking apart the motivations and goals of this particular ghoul, with some sagely informing readers and viewers of the dangerous tendencies of cannibalistic ghouls while others practically hailed it as the savior of humanity. Shinohara and Marude both knew this was where Ripper`s true danger lay: its ability to divide public opinion, force people to question the CCG`s mission. To question the monstrous reality of ghouls.

“Luckily for you,” Shinohara declared, leaning over to the case, opening it and taking a file out. “I`ve decided to set up my own little team to catch Ripper.” He handed the file to Marude, who opened it, and began looking through it. Although the team was small, two of the names stood out to him in particular.

“Ah, so you`re bringing those two into the 10th Ward with you, huh?”

Shinohara nodded, chuckling a little. “Those two are perfect for going up against Ripper. They won`t waver in chasing down and fighting Ripper, more so than anyone else. On top of that, they`re both excellent fighters that complement each other very well and smart enough to track down all but the most elusive of ghouls. And if Ripper is still a lone wolf when we get down to fighting her, I believe we will be able to handle her just fine.”

**Unknown POV**

He was excited.

He was always enthusiastic when Aogiri Tree sent him on an assignment to find a particular ghoul to recruit or drag back for them. The reason being that, if they resisted, he got to play with them, taking fingers, toes, arms, legs, anything that would make them squeal in pain as he took delight in painfully torturing them for hours on end, day and day out.

But, ever since he had stepped into the 10th Ward, he could feel… **something**. He had no idea how to describe it. A feeling of electricity in the air? A strange presence? A dark, malevolent force? It was something that he could somehow **sense** , but not physically. It was one of those things that someone just knows when they feel it, as it sinks down into the depths and crevices of the soul.

And, considering his assignment, he knew exactly that something had to be his quarry. Ever since Aogiri Tree had heard of the rumors of a powerful blood-drinking cannibal of a ghoul in the 10th Ward, Aogiri had sought to gather all of the information it could regarding the creature. After the CCG gave a press conference regarding the same ghoul, the executives of Aogiri Tree knew that they needed to have him or her on their side. This was made especially urgent after they learned that the ghoul had quite handily defeated a rather notorious Dove, Associate-Class Investigator Daisuke Nakadai, and when they later learned he had been psychologically traumatized by the incident. But, despite their best efforts, no one could give them any word about where Ripper`s hideout was or if he had any contacts. And, the people they had already sent always returned empty-handed.

That was why Aogiri Tree had sent him. They were certain that, with his ‘talents,’ he would be able to find Ripper, and, whether or not he cooperated, bring him into the fold, or kill him.

On top of all this, the sensation he was currently experiencing was unlike everything he had ever known in his life. And, since he knew without a doubt it emanated from Ripper, this sensation was also a promise. A promise of something truly otherworldly, something that would entertain him to no end, something that would change his life forever.

He had no idea how he knew, but he knew it for certain, just as certain as he was that night fell after the sun set.

**Seras POV**

Well, he`s a big bastard that one, Pip told Seras. Looking down from Seras` bird`s eye-view from atop a construction crane, Seras could not help but agree. If she were still a fledgling, she would most definitely have hesitated before engaging this particular individual, even without knowing he was a ghoul.

It looks like our inside sources were correct, Mistress, Michi piped in.

Michi, I`m not currently acting in character, Seras admonished. Remember, unless I`m acting in my persona as the No-Life Queen, you don`t have to call me Mistress. I`m much more comfortable with just Seras.

Sorry, Seras, Michi apologized. Roleplaying is just so much fun, right?

Seras mentally shrugged. I guess so. And, I guess it does allow to better understand how my Master acts sometimes, so that`s also why I like to do it. But, let`s focus on what`s in front of us. Alright?

Okay, Michi agreed.

Certainly, _mon cher,_ Pip said.

Seras then looked again at her target. She couldn`t help but smile, seeing her plans moving in motion. She had made plans before, but they had always been short-term strategies for fighting concentrated groups and individuals. This was the first long-term plan she had ever set into motion, against a multiplicity of enemies with a single, over-reaching goal.

Watching this piece of her plan fall into place was one of the most exhilarating experiences she had ever known.

 _Yakumo Oomori, AKA Yamori, AKA 13 th Ward`s Jason. _Seras thought. _Sleep well tonight. I will make all of the arrangements for our meeting tomorrow._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The Ripley Scroll is real. You can look it up online and read the full text.


	6. Unexpected and Expectant Guests

Chapter 6: Unexpected and Expectant Guests

**Michi POV**

This scene feels so cliché, Seras, Michi mentally moaned her mistress. I mean, right now, I`m just waiting for _someone_ to literally jump out and attack me.

So far, as she walked down the street, the only people that Michi had seen actually out and about outside were a couple in romantic embrace, perhaps cheating on one or the other`s lifetime partner, a gang of juvenile delinquents hanging around a public vending machine outside an arcade, and even a few policemen making an arrest. But, what all of the people saw had in common, was that there was someone else with them. No one was alone.

After all, who would want to walk around outside at night all by their lonesome, and give a hungry ghoul the perfect target for a midnight snack? And, looking at Michi, anyone would think so as well. A pretty girl walking alone in the night would have any ghoul salivating at the thought of chewing her up. Even if the 20th Ward was a quiet place, ghoul-wise, such things still happened on occasion.

Michi, however, knew better. She knew that, if someone did try to attack her, her vampire mistress and guardian angel would pop up out of nowhere and dine on them, body and soul.

As entertaining as that might be, it would be preferable that such a thing didn`t happen, so that we can save our surprise for our intended audience, Seras told her.

True that, Michi replied. Turning around a corner and continuing onward, she immediately found what she was looking for. Down the sidewalk, she saw a young, purple-haired girl walking out a door and towards the advertisement board that stood in front of a quaint-looking café. On the sign that stood in front of the café door, she read, “Anteiku.”

“Hey there, Touka!” she shouted, waving her hand in greeting.

Standing up, surprised, Touka looked over to see Michi walk up to her.

“Oh, hi. Michi, was it?” she asked.

“Yeah, that`s right. So, you just closed up shop I`m guessing?”

“Yep. So, sorry if you were hoping to try our coffee.” She paused for a brief moment, as if a thought had crossed her mind. Her eyes narrowed, almost imperceptibly so. “So, what brings you here?”

“I was in the neighborhood visiting a friend`s house,” Michi smoothly replied. “I was about to go home, and then I remembered Yoriko telling me about your job, working as a waitress in a coffee shop. So, I decided to check it out.”

“So, you spent the day at a friend`s house in a neighborhood two wards over from where you live until the dead of night before deciding to head home. Then you decided to come over to a restaurant that you heard about from the only friend I have in school, without mentioning you knowing how you knew where it is in the first place. And you came here by yourself, against whatever better judgment you ought to have, considering you`re a Ghoul Investigator`s daughter, and what happened to you and your friends a while back.”

Michi didn`t have to be the daughter of a ghoul Investigator to see the suspicion in Touka`s eyes. She also knew that her very heritage was a reason for Touka`s suspicion.

So she sighed, raising her hands again, this time in surrender, saying, “Alright, you got me. I didn`t come here just to check the place out. I came because there`s someone I know who really wants to talk with you people here. In private.”

Touka`s eyes narrowed even more so, and she stepped closer to Michi. “Who do you know that would want to talk with us? And why?”

Michi simply smiled mischievously in return, and leaned in conspiratorially, and whispered into Touka`s ear:

“Ripper. And she knows that all of you are ghouls.”

**Touka POV**

“Hey, Manager! We have a guest who wants to speak with us!” Touka shouted, as she led Michi through the door into Anteiku. Since the store was closed, the only people here were her, Koma, Irimi, Yomo, and the manager, Yoshimura. Koma and Irimi were already out in the café proper, finishing up with cleaning the tables, wiping down the counter, and putting away all the tableware. Yomo would be in the back, likely about to go out to do some “shopping,” and Yoshimura would probably be in the office, handling the store`s finances. Each and every one of them a powerful ghoul capable of handling themselves if it came down to a fight.

But, for some reason or other, Touka`s instincts were screaming at her to run away from the human girl that walked past her into the café, drawing the attention of both of the other waiters already present. Touka didn`t know why that was, for as far as she could see, the girl didn`t have any manner of weapon on her person, or at least, something actually dangerous, she had a thin frame but wasn`t what could be called “athletic,” and Michi had even allowed Touka to search her person and take away her cell phone and wallet, meaning she couldn`t call for help and, if were killed and dumped in some random location, no one would able to find her for some time and, even if they did, there would be no trace that anyone at Anteiku had done it.

The only thing which clued Touka into why her internal alarm bells should be ringing at all was the girl`s own attitude. From the slight skip in her step to the slight smile on her face, her whole figure suggested that everyone around her was the punchline for some joke that only she knew about. And so, Touka decided to err on the side of caution and hear out the girl before deciding to just take her out back, break her neck, and rip her guts for tomorrow`s breakfast.

Koma spoke up right then. “Hey there. I`m Koma. What would bring such a delicate flower into our corner of the world? And to speak with the Manager, no less.”

“Would you happen to be a friend of Touka`s?” Irimi said, chiming in. “Otherwise, I don`t think she would`ve let you in.”

“Well, I don`t think we qualify as friends,” Michi replied, “but we have met in school, in the cafeteria, but we don`t share any classes together, so we barely qualify as acquaintances.”

“Okay, still, what would bring you here, Miss…”

“Matsuzaka,” said a warm voice. Touka turned to see the Manager come in from the back, Yomo behind him. He continued. “Michi Matsuzaka, daughter of Associate-Class Ghoul Investigator Akumo Matsuzaka. She is the girl on the news who survived the first recorded Ripper attack a couple of months back. Am I correct?” he asked, giving her his signature room-brightening smile.

It was a testament to how well the ghouls` could maintain their composure under pressure, as none of the ghouls gave any outward sign of their instinctual fear of “doves” that would set off the girl.

She smiled back, beaming brightly. “Yes indeed, and you are?”

“Yoshimura,” he replied. “Now, Touka said that you had something to talk with us about?”

Michi`s smile faded, as her face grew serious. “Well, Touka didn`t quite say it right. Rather, there`s someone I know who wants to speak with you. Someone who knows that you are all ghouls.”

The tension in the room rose up like a flood from a broken dam, accompanied by a silence that was nearly palpable. Everyone`s faces immediately lost all sense of polite greeting in that moment, and Touka could see the thoughts that began to swirl in the other ghouls` minds about how Michi knew, who she knew, why she was here, and what to do to keep their secret intact.

Yoshimura spoke again, not as warmly as before, but certainly as calmly. “Who is this someone, Michi?”

Right then, a beep sounded, causing each of the ghouls to flinch in the direction of the sound. It emanated from the watch on Michi`s wrist.

Looking down and pushing a button to silence it, Michi looked up again at the man-eating predators who had her surrounded, and flashed them an enigmatic grin that would`ve fit very snuggly on the face of the Cheshire Cat.

“You can ask her yourself.”

Before Touka could ask Michi how, since she knew that the girl hadn`t been followed to Anteiku, her spine went stiff from the shivers that ran up and down it like a swarm of spiders, and her skin suddenly broke out in frozen sweat. Looking down, she saw the source of her inexplicable surge of fear.

It was Michi`s shadow.

Normally, Touka, like any other hardened ghoul, wouldn`t be caught dead jumping at suspicious-looking shadows, since it either led to ghouls being dead or dying of embarrassment.

This shadow, on the other hand, moved like it was alive. It shifted and contorted as it spread out and away from the girl who made(?) it. Then eyes, blood-red eyes opened inside of it, all of them staring and gazing outward at everything around them. Touka looked into those eyes, and felt true fear settle into the deepest parts of her being.

And then, a white-gloved hand extended out from the shadow, rising up along with its arm as if reaching out for a throat to strangle. It then bent towards the side, making way for the head of blond hair that was now emerging from the shadow as well.

Pressed against the door, Touka watched in shock and awe as a strange figure stood up from the shadow it emanated from, a shadow that was now withdrawing inside the figure, coalescing into a mass of shapes vaguely resembling barbed tentacles. After it was finished, Touka could see that it revealed the form of a young, busty woman dressed in a cosplay-like burgundy red military jacket with miniskirt and short sleeves, accompanied by long stockings of a similar shade and a pair of black boots. What surprised Touka the most, however, was that, underneath the straw-gold hair, was the face of a girl who was barely an adult, not much older than she was. A face that held a pair of glowing red ruby eyes and a smile filled with sadistic glee and sharp fangs.

Touka took a brief moment to look at everyone else. Koma stood way back behind the counter and looked as if he`d wet his pants, Irimi`s eyes were like light bulbs and she was covering her mouth with her hand, Yomo had taken a defensive posture and his normally expressionless face showed genuine fear in it, and Yoshimura had visible beads of sweat on his face, revealing how shaken he was by this turn of events. When she looked at Michi, the girl was doubled over, with her mouth covered, and her body shaking as if trying to hold in something immense.

She brought her attention back to the materialized nightmare before her. _This must be how a human feels when a ghoul corners them_ , she thought. While she had felt a fear of death before, that was from getting pursued by Ghoul Investigators, and she`d never met a ghoul that was so dangerous before that didn`t also give her fury and drive to beat the crap out of them. This fear that she felt, this was that of a little lamb before the big bad wolf, the fear of prey before a predator, the kind that instilled an absolute feeling of helplessness.

The monster then swept its normal right arm forward in front of itself while bowing to all the ghouls in the store. It spoke with a voice that echoed by its own merit, with a softness to it that only a supernatural being like itself could have possessed.

“It`s a pleasure to meet you, ghouls of Anteiku. My name is Seras Victoria, the Ripper of the 10th Ward, and No-Life Queen of all Vampires.”

The room was dead silent. No one, not even Yoshimura, dared speak. Then Seras spoke up again. “You can let it out, Michi.”

The girl proceeded to let out a burst of laughter that resounded through the room like an explosion.

**Amon POV**

“NO! PLEASE!! I`M BEGGING YOU! DON`T KILL ME!!!”

“Your screeching is very irritating, showing that you still have nothing worthwhile to say. Even your kagune is nothing more than a piece of trash, incapable of making a good quinque. The only thing you`re good for now is dying.”

“NOOO-”

*Slash*

 _And with that,_ Amon thought, _another one is dead._

This ghoul had made the grave mistake of attempting to ambush First-Class Investigator Kureo Mado in a dark alleyway, resulting in the ghoul swiftly losing an arm and a leg to Mado`s quinque. Amon knew how much Mado loved the scenario, as he got to watch how a ghoul underwent an emotional roller coaster as the predator became prey to the seemingly helpless prey it had hunted. It was something that was not effective in luring targets, but it gave Mado a thrill that never grew old.

“Well sir,” Amon began, addressing his senior partner. “It looks like another dead end here. At this point, I believe that the other ghouls here know even less about Ripper than we do.”

“Yes, it certainly appears so. Fortunately for us, we caught quite a few more rats than we thought we would. Unfortunately, they were all about as useful to us as the air they breathed. It seems that this Ripper is either very well hidden or keeps very exclusive trust to be so active and yet be so much of an enigma to even her own kind. On top of that, none of these ghouls had anything interesting to contribute. This one had the only kagune that we actually got to see in action out of the five we met, and let me tell you, that koukaku of his may as well have been a chicken bone with how thin and scraggly it looked. This ghoul must have been starving and certainly very weak to begin with to have had such a useless kagune.”

Amon checked his watch, and saw that it was well past midnight.

“Sir, I think we should call it a night. I`ll call the branch office again to come dispose of the body so that we can go and get some rest.”

Mado just sighed. “Very well. I guess I won`t be having interesting prey again for a while. At least, not until I meet the Ripper. A cannibal several dozen times over with a streak of arrogance and a propensity for titles of royalty. If nothing else, I hope her kagune will make for a magnificent quinque.”

Amon nodded. He too looked forward to finally seeing that monster slain, especially for the purpose of bringing justice to it for what it had done to Investigator Nakadai. Amon remembered how, one time, Special Investigator Shinohara, a man he respected, spoke very highly and fondly of the man, and Amon had read of his exploits. Thus, it was nothing short of heart-breaking to have first met the man after he`d been mentally broken by the Ripper. The man had been reduced to a complete wreck that literally jumped at shadows and wouldn`t sleep without the lights on at full luminosity, lest he scream like he was being brutally murdered.

 _He screamed just like that ghoul did,_ Amon noted. While he had never known the man personally, he felt especially pained when he saw how much grief Shinohara showed at the man`s condition, which was so extreme, even his presence did little to assuage the man`s fears.

He also remembered talking with Fujiyama, who had accompanied Nakadai the night they met Ripper. The boy was distraught because he had been rendered completely helpless by the Ripper, and thus unable to help his senior partner in any meaningful capacity when he had faced the Ripper alone. On top of that, the boy said, it had all happened so fast that he couldn`t give any real details about the Ripper other than that it was a female that wore lots of red.

What had truly struck Amon in that conversation was the true sorrow the boy had expressed when he`d let down his partner. Looking to Mado, he vowed to never let the man down, and always be there at his time need.

“Don`t you worry, Mr. Mado,” he said, with a slight smile. “We`ll get her, one day. We just have to find her first.”

“Ya ain`t gonna have to.”

The two men immediately about-faced at the sound of the voice. Standing at the entrance to the alleyway was an individual who stood at just below head height for Mado, but appeared to have a lithe figure. He wore color-coordinating ash-grey shoes, pants, and an open business suit, revealing a black vest and button-down shirt with a white tie, with a couple of final touches in the forms of navy blue shades and a red scarf. Most notable was the person`s voice: youthful, with a deliberate gangster slant to it. The lad`s whole appearance screamed wannabe yakuza.

On a normal day, Amon wouldn`t be worried about an individual who was a walking example of having more style than substance. But, his words carried a tone of voice that hinted that he knew far more than he was letting on, so both Amon and Mado brought out their quinques and studied the enemy before them more carefully.

The lad raised his arms. “Hey, easy fellas. I wasn`t sent here to pick a fight. My orders rather are to bring an invite.”

As the two Investigators stood there, slightly confused at his words, he pulled one side of his suit out, revealing an envelope in the breast pocket. Slowly, he brought his hand over, grasped it, lifted it out and, bending down, placed it gingerly on the ground.

Straightening his suit, he spoke again, “Well, it was a pleasure to meetcha, Koutarou and Kureo. See you next week, and don`t forget, all the party guests are expected to bring gifts. After all, it`s a special occasion for the Mistress. See ya!”

He then turned and walked away. Amon and Mado quickly gave chase, but when they exited the alleyway, the boy was nowhere to be seen. The two of them turned back to the envelope that had been left for them.

“Well, at least he left us with a parting gift,” Mado said, stepping forward to retrieve it with his gloved hands.

“Something`s wrong, Mr. Mado,” Amon said suddenly.

Mado paused, and turned towards him. “What`s that?”

Amon looked at him with a grave expression. “That boy. He was watching us the entire time and we never noticed. On top of that, whoever he is, he knew us by face and by name. Either he personally knows us, or his Mistress, Ripper, has a means to gather detailed information on CCG personnel.”

Mado paused to think. “You`re probably right. Smart rats these are. They`re certainly going to make our lives more interesting, won`t they?”

Amon nodded. “Agreed.”

Kureo Mado bent down again towards the envelope, grasping it with his gloved hands.


	7. Walpurgisnacht Approaches

Chapter 7: Walpurgisnacht Approaches

**Seras POV**

“There it is,” Seras declared. “Cochlea.”

In the distance, she looked upon one of the most intimidating prisons she had ever seen. A massive sloped cylinder of a windowless building hundreds of meters high squatted in the center of double pentagonal rings of towering walls. While there were gates for automobiles to pass through, each one was heavily guarded and overlooked by sentry posts at the top of the walls, each post holding guards armed with automatic weaponry and searchlights. While there were a variety of facilities within the walls, only the immense holding center for the ghouls themselves had no windows.

So, Pip mused. The kiddie gloves are coming off now, _cest pas_?

The invitations had been sent only the night before.

Yes, Pip, Seras replied. I`ve only got six more days before the event, and it`s the perfect time to get everything going. If I`m going to put an end to this war, I need to do something extremely drastic that will allow for that kind of change to start happening. 

How does slaughtering more of us help end the exterminations? cried out one of the ghoul familiars. How does bringing us closer to extinction help us survive? Huh?!

A cacophony of voices rose up in Seras` mind, all of them belonging to the ghouls whose blood and souls she drank. They were so loud that she physically winced from the volume, forcing her to mentally suppress them, an action that still disgusted after fifteen years of unlife.

Although she had come to drink the blood of many a vampire and monster in her fifteen years of service to Hellsing, she refused still to outright crush the souls and wills of even her worst victims like her Master would to each of his familiars. Thus, she had also initially developed a habit of not immediately scouring the memories and knowledge of the souls she consumed so as to be able to review them at a different time when she had the opportunity to relax herself and fully digest the fact that she had consumed yet another being. This was why it took Seras so long to realize the true nature of the ghouls, a fact she regretted when she learned that how kind-hearted some of the ghouls she consumed actually were. Now she made sure to check over her new familiars as soon as she acquired.

“Those ghouls giving you trouble again, Seras-sama?” a boyish, gangster-imitating voice asked behind her.

She smiled, then addressed the voice. “Yes, the ghouls I`ve consumed don`t quite agree with my course of action.”

“I stopped caring for the voices of the dead quite some time ago,” a feminine voice joined in, this one speaking with a cold, bitter bite. “Even now, when we can hear them, it is the living who truly matter, for they build the future.”

“Don`t be so foolish, child,” an elderly voice chided, resonating with wisdom and noble authority. “It is from the dead that the living learn their most lasting lessons. It is when they fail to learn from the dead that they repeat their mistakes. It is our newfound purpose as the undead, those who stand between life and death, to show the living the perils of their errors in life.”

“Ha! I think you`re fooling yourself, Gramps,” she heard another male voice retort, amused by the old man`s words. “You only wanted to be a vampire to avoid dying, old man.”

“That`s enough, all of you,” she said, turning to her companions. “Tonight, we`re upping our game. Only six days left before our world premiere. What we`re doing here is but a teaser for the CCG to wrack its mind over. Remember, we go in, we get our targets, we get out. We should be getting word from our inside man… now.”

It`s all clear, everyone, the aforementioned inside man communicated, giving the listeners the impression of a young man entering into his prime. I`ve taken over the security in the prison proper, so the rest of the facility and the CCG will remain unaware of our operation. I`ve also rigged it to destroy all evidence of our presence once you all leave. The ghouls we need alive and free I`ve already retrieved, and am now about to head for the 20th Ward to process them through Anteiku.

“Is it playtime now, Obaa-chan?” This was the voice of a little girl, innocent and sweet.

Briefly turning to look at the person who spoke, she replied, “Yes. Just remember to follow the rules, okay?”

“Okay!”

Seras turned back in Cochlea`s direction, the light of the moon shining down to gleam on its surface.

She grinned predatorily, embracing her vampiric majesty in full once more.

“My children, show them what true monsters are made of.”

She and her compatriots then transformed into mist, and drifted, silently, towards the prison.

**Masahiko POV**

Telekinesis. Teleportation. Shadow-manipulation. Familiar summoning. Regeneration. Agelessness. The list of powers he had at his disposal by being a vampire was long, and he relished using each and every one of them.

Traveling as a mist was also undeniably cool in his mind, especially from the sensation he got from practically _becoming_ the wind rather than having it blow in his face.

Above all else, he reveled in the sheer **power** he now held.

Being the firstborn son in his family, he was first in everything among the children in the family due to both age and size, a privilege he greatly cherished. When he went to school, he quickly discovered that he was more than above average in athletics, and so began to drive himself to go to further lengths to achieve greater feats. He tried his hand at a multitude of different sports, including baseball and swimming, eventually finding his forte in both track and archery.

His desire in life was simple: to be the best, no questions asked.

So he pushed himself through long hours of training and fought as hard as he could to earn great achievements. He took great pride in his training and his accomplishments, although some would be quick to call him arrogant, since he held those of lesser talent in lower esteem and those who managed to surpass him with seething envy. But no one could fault his work ethic, whereby he still continued to build himself up.

Then he got ambushed by a ghoul.

Confronted by a predator, he was forced to run in an attempt to escape, recognizing that there was no possible way he could fight it and win. Unfortunately, the ghoul caught him quite handily, crippling him with its kagune. Having no means of escape, forced to wait for the ghoul to kill him, he reflected on his life`s choices. Determined to honor his own memory, he decided that he wouldn`t die a coward, so he turned toward the ghoul, cracked a smile, he said, “G-g-go a-ahead… Eat me. I`ll make sure you choke.”

Seras would later tell him that it was this last spark of defiance that convinced her to offer him vampirism after she dispatched his attacker with casual ease. While he gave little care for her motives, or even her crusade, only two things about Seras mattered to him: she gave him great power, and she held greater power still.

So for now, he`ll follow her lead, wafting into Cochlea in search of prey to feast on this night.

**Katsuo POV**

Selecting a cell at random, he decided to take the theatrical approach to his first victim.

Then, remembering Seras` orders, instead of kicking the heavy door down, he opted to walk through it. Upon entering, he saw that, lucky for him, his target was a woman, and a pretty one to boot. Katsuo grinned from ear to ear in appreciation.

“WOOH-WEE! You, ma`am, are one fine-looking dollface!”

The female ghoul instantly woke up, shocked to see someone in her cell without her knowing that they were there. The confusion on her face was quickly apparent.

“Who the hell are you? *sniff* And **what** in hell are you?”

Katsuo clapped in response. “Bravo, miss. Bravo. It is truly a testament to your nature that you are able to retain your edge in awareness and sensory ability in the midst of suffering the evils of this cruel place. And so beautiful, too.”

The woman leaped forward and slammed her rinkaku kagune right in the spot where Katsuo was standing.

He laid in the bed where she had been just a moment ago. “Wow. This thing is absolutely uncomfortable. How do you sleep on this thing?”

The woman turned around, a look of shock evident on her face.

“W-What do you want?”

Humming to himself, he kicked his feet up and jumped off the bed, planting his feet on the ceiling. Turning towards the woman, who appeared upside-down in his view, seeing the look of absolute disbelief on her face-

“BWAHAHAHAHAHAAAAaaaah! You should see the look on your face!” he laughed, throwing his head back and pointing at her. “It`s absolutely pric-”

SQUELCH!

The ghoul ran him through with her kagune.

He dropped from the ceiling to the floor in a broken, bloody heap.

The woman huffed to herself. “Shitty freak. I still don`t know why the hell you came.” She bent down and over him, moving toward his face. “But at least now you`re as dead as you smell.”

His hands suddenly grabbed the sides of her head, applying enough pressure to make her skull start straining. He gave her the toothiest grin he possibly could, feeling great pleasure in watching her face contort in pain and fear.

“It`s a wonderful feeling, dying. Trust me, I know from experience.”

The smiling face of Seras-sama came to mind as he stopped playing and crushed the ghoul`s skull between his hands.

**Rin POV**

_There you are,_ she thought, as she finished draining a ghoul of blood while looking through his memories. Using her telekinesis, she then tore the body to pieces, splattering the bones, guts and brains all over the bed, floor, wall, and ceiling. Walking through the wall once more, she eyed a particular cell lower down on the opposite side of the chasm that hollowed out the center of Cochlea. She leaped across to the other side like a child over a crack in the sidewalk, then phased through the door like all of the others she had that evening.

She knew who he was the moment she saw him. It may have been years since she last saw him, but that face of his looked as stupid as ever. After all, it`s difficult to forget the face of the one who killed your best friend and ate her for lunch. All while watching in cowardly despair and powerlessness from a safe hiding place.

She grabbed his ankle, yanked him off the bed, and threw him into the wall, cracking the wall and shattering his spine.

“ARGH! WHAT THE F*** WAS THAT FOR??!!”

She was silently thankful that the Rc-suppressants that the ghoul prisoners ate had worn off somewhat, else he`d get killed too quickly.

“You don`t know who I am, therefore you don`t know why I`m here,” she stated, her icy rage showing through her calm voice.

“I know exactly why you`re here, bitch!!” he retorted getting onto his elbows and knees, trying to get up again. “You`re here to take my screwed-up life and screw with it even more!!!”

She gave a slight smile at the response, walking over to him. “Good guess, but that`s not even half the story.” Bending over him, her eyes searched his body and her memory. “My motive here, is vengeance.” Then, looking at a particular spot under the right shoulder-blade, she thrust her hand into the ghoul`s flesh, grabbed what she was looking for, and ripped it out.

“AAAAGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!” She watched, amused, as the ghoul screamed once more. If he`d had a normal diet, he wouldn`t be suffering this much. But imprisoned ghouls were intentionally never given their full, necessary diet, leaving ghouls like him much weaker than they normally would be. “I`LL KILL YOU!” Then, after a moment, his face of pain and anger filled up with confusion as he looked at his shoulder. “W-wh- where`s m-”

“Can`t get your kagune out?” she asked in sadistic pleasure. He turned back toward her. “I`m afraid you need a kakuhou for that.” She held up a sack of flesh pinched in her fingers before his eyes. “And this is yours.” Then she lifted it over her head, lowered it into her mouth, and swallowed it whole. She simply loved the look of shock on his face when he saw it.

“What? You`re a ghoul? But you smell like a human! And you`re dressed like a Dove!”

She let her pupils flash red, and bared her shark-like teeth. “Dove? Yes. Human? Ghoul? No.”

The ghoul could feel it settle into his gut, that sensation of paralyzing fear that the lamb has when the wolf has it cornered. “Wh-when Big Bro hears about this, he`ll-”

“Do absolutely nothing,” she declared, cutting him off. His face was the picture of mournful disbelief.

“What? What do you mean?”

Normally, she doesn`t indulge in the pain of her victims. After all, her victims were ghouls, evil ghouls that she knew needed to die. Her friend, Aiko, had died by their hands. Even though she was one herself.

But this was the ghoul who cannibalized her. And her newly acquired vampiric nature inclined her to indulge in this sadistic torture.

“What do I mean? Last night, a Dove gave him the beat-down of a lifetime. And do you know what the best part is? Now he has to serve that Dove for the rest of his life. Whether he likes it or not.”

He vehemently shook his head, pushing himself as far from her as he could. “No. No no no nonononNONONONOOO!!!!”

She stood up, towering over him like the Grim Reaper. “I`m here to do a lot more than screw with your life. I`m here to smash your body to bits, break your mind into a million little pieces, and then drink up your soul like a can of Coke. But look on the bright side, you might get to see Yamori again, before you both go to Hell.”

Naki just screamed as she approached him once more.

**Seiichi POV**

Even now, in this prison, as he consumed the life of another ghoul, he recognized the soul of a true Japanese man.

Japan was a nation populated with a people that, despite decades of Western influence and liberal democracy, still retained an Eastern sense of honor at the core of their beings. He, having lived through World War II in the prime of manhood and watched the nation change before his very eyes as he aged, understood this better than most. It was an honor that told a person to die rather than surrender and admit defeat. An honor that would only bend before an undeniable power, and then only for the right cause.

This ghoul surrendered to the CCG only so as to distract them from his escaping family, allowing them to live another day.

Seiichi had seen great suffering during the War, both from his comrades and the enemy soldiers he came across. And when he came home from his deployment, he saw the price of war on the ordinary citizens, from the sacrifices they made for the military`s benefit to the deaths they suffered from the air raids that the Americans rained down upon them. But the sight of all the suffering at first only made him more furious, as he, along with Japan, became even more determined to destroy their hated enemy.

Then, Hiroshima.

The ghoul suffered through experiments and stretches of intense starvation, as his life descended into an ever-worsening nightmare.

He had the misfortune of witnessing the destruction of the city by that demonic weapon the Americans later revealed to be the atomic bomb. When he came to the city, all he saw was a wasteland of broken ruins. Where there had been vibrant city life filled with excited traffic and laughing children, there were only two sounds to be heard: whistling wind, and agonizing wails. It haunts him even today. This was why it pained even more so when, three days later, he learned that Nagasaki had fallen to the same fate. By then, what point was there in honor in the face of absolute annihilation?

He remained thankful to the gods to this day that the emperor had the wisdom and the courage to put the welfare of Japan before its honor, and told the military to stand down.

The ghoul prayed every night for the safety of his family, finding peace and comfort in his prayers, and his personal sacrifice.

He, more than any of the others, understood exactly what Seras was trying to do. The CCG would try to annihilate all ghouls at the cost of thousands of human lives each year not just because they were driven by money, vengeance, or even justice. They also did so out of honor, for both themselves and Japan, because they had embarked on this war, and would either gain complete victory, or lose everything.

Japanese honor would only bend before an undeniable power, and then only for the right cause. Japan surrendered to America at the very end of World War II because the threat of the atomic bomb was the annihilation of Japan, and the word of the emperor, from the mouth of the gods, was that he could no longer abide by needless war. Japanese honor was defeated by the unspeakable tragedy that was the atomic bomb.

In all the decades of his life, nothing had ever horrified him so, not even the ghouls, who he could not help but pity, in their existential suffering.

But now the No-Life Queen had come to this world. And she threatened it with horrors they could scarce imagine.

**Haruka POV**

“NOOOOO! PLEASE! STOOPPP!”

*CRACK*

The little girl dressed in her pretty, frilly, purple princess outfit pouted as the ghoul she was playing with stopped moving after he got tackled into the floor.

“Ooohhhhh. You can`t play for reals with me either? I guess I can only play pretend with you.”

Bending down, she made a friendship kiss on his heart and drank him all up, from his insides to what was all over the room and what had gotten on her dress. She watched his life movie, and then let him join her other friends and her daddy in dreamland. Then she invisible-exploded his old house.

She walked through the door to the cell (it felt funny, walking _through_ a door), and began looking for another playmate. Closing er eyes and scrunching her face, she listened really hard. Unfortunately, hardly anybody new to play with was left. Masa-san was being greedy, taking new friends everywhere, Katsu-kun was having a lot of fun playing with each of his new friends, Kita-san was being her mean to everyone, Nakagawa-sama was kind and thoughtful as he always was with everyone, and obaa-chan-

*CRASH*

Jumping in surprise, she immediately down to the bottom of the big hole, where she saw obaa-chan crouching, her black-and-red arm out and ready to play. Then she saw a hole in the wall, and there stood a tall, strong-looking man with a serious face. She watched him rush forward - _he`s fast!_ – and punch at Obaa-chan and she blocked it. She punched back – _he blocked it!_ She saw Obaa-chan smile. _This looks fun to watch._

She watched, fascinated, as the two of them ran and jumped around, over, and under each other, throwing punches and kicks at their chests, their faces, their arms, over and over and over and over and- _there`s his other arm!_ Their playing became lots more fun as she used his special arm and Obaa-chan made her black-and-red arm bigger to play with him.

She heard Obaa-chan say a few things to the big man. Something about a priest, some clowns, the people in gray, the letter “v,” and somebody called the “Wah-shoos?” But he didn`t say anything back.

She giggled and fidgeted as she watched Obaa-chan play with someone for reals for much longer than she saw anyone else play with her. _I hope that she lets me play with him for reals._ She knew that Obaa-chan was going to win. After all, she hadn`t done the invisible throw, changed her body, or even asked her friends to join her.

She saw the big man slow down, and then Obaa-chan punched him really hard, and he stopped moving. She saw Obaa-chan whisper something - _I can`t hear her,_ \- in his ear, then made a friendship kiss on his neck, drinking him all up, before standing up and then making his old home invisible-explode.

Then Obaa-chan head-spoke. Is everyone finished?

There`s nothing left, Your Majesty. Masa-kun.

I`m done what I came to do. Kita-san.

Nobody left but us. Katsu-kun.

Nobody`s left? So playtime`s over? She replied.

We have nothing more for us here. Nakagawa-sama.

All right everyone, let`s return home. There are some new developments that I need to discuss with you all as soon as we get there.

Everybody became clouds, and they floated all the way back home.

**Normal POV**

The crescent moon hung low in the sky, shining as much light on Tokyo as it could. The new moon would arrive in six nights.

And the inhabitants of Tokyo, both human and ghoul, couldn`t help but dread the thought. As if the heavens were turning their gaze away from them.

As if the darkest of nights was coming to swallow them whole.


	8. They Don`t Know Anything About Anything

<video>

**Marude POV**

<Greetings to the men and women of the Commission of Counter-Ghoul. My name is Seras Victoria, the Ripper of the 10th Ward and the No-Life Queen of the Vampires.>

After Mado and Amon`s mysterious envelope from the Ripper`s subordinate was revealed to be a disk, the CCG tested and tried it a dozen times over for viruses and malware before deeming it safe for viewing. This was the first time that this video was being shown to general CCG personnel, but Marude sincerely wished that she hadn`t made the video at all.

<What is a human? Scientists say they`re just animals, descendants via evolution of monkeys and apes. Theologians will state that humans are beings with immortal souls that possess gifts of intelligence, self-awareness, reason, and conscience.>

He sat quietly, watching the video being played on the massive screen. It displayed the image of a young, red-eyed, blond European woman garbed in a flowing red dress with a black-and-red sleeve covering her left arm, a wine glass filled with blood that she toyed with in her left hand. This was the first solid image of her that they had ever received, making the video a goldmine of information for the profilers.

<What is a monster? The dictionary says that it is something or someone that greatly deviates from normal appearance or acceptable behavior, generally of rather threatening disposition and action.>

Marude would have liked to sit somewhere further back from the large screen, but considering every other seat in the lecture hall had been filled by Investigators and other CCG personnel and that he had himself taken a seat at the front so as to address everyone, it couldn`t be helped. Besides, he`d already seen this video.

<But, no one is ever satisfied with such clean answers, which simply fail in our minds to encompass the full reality these words entail. When you toy around with these two questions and the myriad possible answers to them for a long time, you can come to some rather startling revelations about yourself and the people around you. You soon realize that the difference between the two is not as simple to distinguish as it is the diets of two different species. You learn that someone you think of as a human can also at the same time be the vilest monster at heart, and that even the worst monster you could have ever known still has one final spark of humanity left inside of him.>

Still, he couldn`t help but grit his teeth at the sight of that girl, lounging like an entitled little bitch on that velvet throne of hers, speaking in that unnaturally smooth voice with an intentional dramatic flair, like she was playing the role of the villainous mastermind in some cheesy superhero movie or corny drama. And she- no _it_ \- dared to lecture him on humans and monsters?!

<But still, I`m sure that you all agree with me when I say that there is nothing more precious in this world than humanity, that intangible quality by which a being is able to taste and enjoy the full fruits of life itself until their death. But it`s only when confronted by a crisis that a person can come to find what they truly are, and then decide what to make of it. If a person confronts such a tragedy with both feet planted firmly in the ground and refuse to surrender to it, even if it threatens their very lives, only then can they truly embrace their human life.>

_How can she know what it`s like to be human?_ he thought. After he had watched this video the first time around, the questions she had poised had haunted his mind, forcing him to look at everything he`d done just a little differently as he struggled to comprehend where her questions had come from. Even now, he could feel them poisonously circulating in some dark corner of his mind.

<But what happens if a person is confronted by tragedy and they run away from it, rather than stand against it? Such a one will never truly appreciate the gifts they have been given, for they are too weak to bear the full burden of a human existence, becoming nothing but a dog, barking and biting at the behest of others all his days. But then what happens if that person cannot escape from that tragedy, and surrender to it, allowing themselves to be broken by it, and lose that vital piece of humanity from their being? When their own free volition is no longer sufficient to maintain their existence, and they substitute it with the pain and agony of others to drive them forward, they become a monster, a pitiful creature forever inflicting suffering and forever seeking an escape from its own.>

He had nothing but contempt for ghouls, as the creatures gave the world nothing of any real benefit, and brought humanity only death, suffering, and grief. He had seen literally hundreds of people have their hearts be broken upon learning that a member of their family or one of their friends had been killed and eaten by a ghoul. That they had died at the hands of an inhuman monster born from the pits of Hell that had then subsequently defiled the sanctity of their body by treating it as nothing but meat. And he hated it when one of these creatures spoke like this, trying to lay claim to some nonexistent portion of humanity, trying to convince good people to believe their words and be lured into a trap just as they stab them in the back.

<So now, I will ask you two questions: Are you a man, a dog, or a monster? And what are the people around you? Men, dogs, or monsters?>

But that was precisely the problem with the Ripper. He honestly had no idea whatsoever why the Ripper was the media firestorm that she was. Any and every ghoul that somehow managed to gain personal attention from the public was a verifiable monster. But, because of her vigilante-style targeting of ghouls and leaks to the press from the CCG offices (they still didn`t know where they came from), she had become a topic of furious debate, dividing public opinion of the ghoul, and actually causing people to question the CCG.

<Only you can answer those questions for yourselves. And these are the same questions that I intend to pose to Tokyo when night falls on the Vernal Equinox.>

And with this video, she could now directly poison the minds of anyone and everyone who watched with every word from her mouth.

<If you want a preview, I`ll be watching the cherry blossoms in the Imperial Gardens in the afternoon of that festive day. But I will only entertain three guests from the CCG and I will tolerate no interruption in our private little meeting. Make sure to choose wisely who you send.>

Now she had issued them a challenge they could not afford to refuse, let alone lose.

<And now, I`m afraid I must be going. (She stands up) So much to do, so little time to do it. So I`ll leave with one final statement: (She holds out the wine glass in front of her) I`m coming for you. (She crushes the glass in her fist, letting the blood drip from her hand and flow down her sleeve) All of you.>

The video ends, and the screen is frozen with the image of the No-Life Queen`s bloody fist held forward, a mocking grin fixed on its face. Both Marude and the gathered Investigators are silent.

Marude turned back to the crowd.

“Gentlemen, this video was delivered to us only two days ago. Last night, the entire population of detained ghouls in Cochlea was either captured or outright slaughtered, and our investigation into it has found that there is no security footage or eyewitness accounts that can tell us precisely how this attack was carried and who exactly was involved. Judging by the evidence found, we have concluded that this was the latest assault by the Ripper, although it is clear that she is not working alone, and appears to be acting as either the spokesman or leader of an organized gang of ghouls with unprecedented strategic ability.”

There was a lot of murmuring that could be heard, a lot more than usual. Their nervousness and apprehension shone clearly.

“Due to these latest developments, a press conference is going to be held later today by Chairman Washuu and the Board, where they will officially declare the Ripper to be an SSS-class ghoul, re-codifying her as the No-Life Queen, and naming her public enemy number one to the city and people of Tokyo.”

There was shock on their faces. The last ghoul to be given this kind of attention from both the CCG and the public was the One-Eyed Owl, who earned the SSS rating by destroying an entire CCG branch office single-handedly. Marude took a breath and steeled himself even more for his next words.

“To put it very simply, we are at war.”

**Akumo POV**

This was the last straw.

Ever since he had a family, he had always had to live a balancing act of not only ensuring his family`s safety, but also their happiness. When he started out in the CCG, it wasn`t as much of an issue, as he wasn`t very well known. But after he became a rising star, he soon gained a lot of unsavory attention from the inhuman creatures. This was driven home when his family received a death threat in their mail. Although he was able to satisfy himself by hunting down and killing the gang that sent it, he never got over the fear of some other ghoul getting his family. A fear that was compounded when he learned his daughter and her friends had been attacked by a ghoul.

He had been struggling even more with the question when he learned that she was only still alive because another one of the monsters had decided to let her go instead of eating her. Although he was able to ensure her protection for a while just in case she was being targeted (his wife and daughter had argued with him about its merits daily), his concerns for his family`s welfare only grew with every confirmed kill by the Ripper – the same ghoul that, for some strange reason, spared his daughter, and who he feared might come back for her.

As soon as the meeting had ended, the first thing Akumo did was call his wife and tell her that she and the family needed to get the hell out of Tokyo immediately. Sakura, unfortunately, wasn`t in favor of the idea, citing what the neighbors, their friends, and extended family would think, on top of how the children would struggle with the situation and the fact that she would have to give notice to her boss on her situation without getting subsequently fired in the process, which could take until tomorrow to get done, considering she had today off. Conceding for the moment, he said that they would discuss everything in greater detail when he came home.

The rest of his day at work went by in a daze. By the time he was driving home, all he could recall doing was the vague fact that he had worked with planning new daily patrols all over the city, especially the 10th Ward, assigning different men to different teams for tasks ranging from checking surveillance cameras all over the city and sifting through online message boards, blogs, and other websites to scouring underworld sources for any information on the No-Life Queen`s whereabouts, compatriots, and history. By the end of his day, all he really cared about was his family. And the delicious dinner he knew that Sakura was probably cooking. He was again glad that he could come home a little early to enjoy it with everyone else.

After arriving at home and parking the car, he walked right into his house. He smelled curry, making his mouth water.

“I`m home!” he shouted.

“Welcome home, honey,” Sakura said, with a warm smile.

“Hey Dad, long time no see,” Michi said, food in her mouth.

“DAD! Did you kill any ghouls today?” Mamiru exclaimed excitedly.

“Pleased to meet you, Mr. Matsuzaka,” a new voice spoke up.

No. This had to be a nightmare. It simply couldn`t be here now of all times.

The new figure rose up to meet him.

He had to be very careful how to handle this. He knew that there was no way he could destroy this monster by himself, and since it had so far shown no interest in harming his family -yet-  and since it had spared his daughter before, there was a real chance that his family would be left unharmed. All he had to do was make sure that he didn`t spook the monster.

“I-I`m sorry, I`m afraid we haven`t met before, Miss-?”

“Victoria,” she replied, bowing and straightening again. “Seras Victoria.”

After accepting her greeting, he took his seat at the table across his wife, then accepted from his daughter a serving of his wife`s curry with rice. As he took the first bite, he looked over at his “guest.”

She looked back at him with crystal blue eyes. Unlike the blood-red eyes filled with the dark emptiness of sadistic arrogance that he saw in the video from earlier that day, the eyes he saw here were bright with both quiet happiness and a deep sorrow that, despite all of his training and knowledge telling him otherwise, his instincts told him were genuine. In the video, she had been dressed in a powerful red dress. Here, she had on a pair of jeans and a pink hoodie with brown gloves on her hands. In the video, he saw a powerful, terrifying monster that would enjoy watching someone die a slow and painful death. Here, he saw a young woman, barely more than a girl – someone who distressingly reminded him of his daughter Mika.

“Uhm, Dad, why are you staring at Seras?”

Akumo`s attention immediately snapped to his other daughter, Michi, who had noticed that he had been focusing all of his attention on the European girl rather than his family.

“Oh, sorry. It`s just that I`ve been going through a very stressful day at work and as soon as I come home, there`s a stranger sitting at my table with my family eating my wife`s food.”

“What? Am I not good enough for your wife`s food?” Seras asked, teasingly. “Do you have to give your approval to anyone who wants to eat your` wife`s food?”

“I have three treasures in my life: my wife, my children, and my wife`s cooking.”

“Isn`t that technically only two things, Dad?” Michi stated. “I mean, without Mom, you no longer have her cooking.”

“Okay, you`re right. But still, since I`m not familiar with you, what brings you here?”

“Oh, well Dad, I invited her over,” Michi said.

Akumo suspected as much. “How do you know each other?”

Seras replied. “I`m here as part of an overseas university study program for the semester. I first met Michi a couple of months ago, and she has been a big help for me finding my way around town. She`s also helped me improve my computer skills considerably and been simply a big help with my research project.”

Akumo was curious about what she would say next. “What are you researching?”

Seras smiled. “The role of the occult throughout history. The thing is, people have believed in magic for millennia and continue to do so even today. What I`m studying is not only what specific abilities people have ascribed to occult powers and forces and the means by which they were reputed to be used, but also specific times in history where interest in, and even attempted use of, the occult has had a direct impact on history.”

“You mean people have used magic before?!” Mamiru shouted.

Seras laughed a little. “Well, they`ve certainly tried. Ancient Egypt is reputed to have had its own court magicians and medieval Europe saw thousands burned at the stake for witchcraft, both men and women. One Native American chief called Prophet apparently cast a spell of invulnerability on his warriors before sending them to fight the Americans at the Battle of Tippecanoe, which they lost. Even more recently, the Nazis in World War II, on top of everything else, launched studies into occult magic to further their agenda and attempt to gain otherworldly powers.”

Akumo was immediately intrigued. He could see that at least some of the information they had gathered was accurate. She was displaying signs of thorough education and a real fascination with occultist materials. He still wondered why, however. Although the CCG found the tidbit with occultism trivial, he felt that there had to be some deeper reason for the fascination, one that could quite possibly explain the enigma that is Seras Victoria.

“So, are there any examples of the occult in Japan?” he said. Seras turned toward him. “I mean, you are currently staying here in Tokyo, right?”

Seras` complexion became thoughtful. Then she answered. “Stuff that the West would judge as occult doesn`t really as far as I know play a major role in overall East Asian history, aside from Shi Huangdi of the Qi Dynasty in China, as he allegedly pursued an immortality-granting elixir. Although, I have done some research on Abe no Seimei and the magic system called onymoudo during my time here, and I have found that there was a possibility of certain factions and families in Japan throughout history also trying to obtain otherworldly powers for their own benefit or seeking a means to immortality so as to garner immense rewards from the emperor.”

Akumo nodded, taking another bite of curry. Then he asked his final question: “Why are you so fascinated with the occult?”

Seras just smiled softly and chuckled to herself, with a sad look in her eyes. “Let`s just say for now, that it`s been a very big part of my life for a very long time.”

**Seras POV**

As she walked out the door, Seras felt her heart clench. This was something it hadn`t done since Pip had died. There was no wonder for this, after all.

Even though she completely unable to savor a single bite or sip of the dinner put before the family, literally forcing herself to eat all of the unsatisfying dinner, she had thoroughly enjoyed the friendly conversation shared around the table, from Michi`s time at school, with her friends Nanami, Yoriko, and Touka (Michi was the only who knew she was a ghoul and Touka that she was a vampire`s familiar), to Mamiru`s over-the-top bad jokes. She also enjoyed the banter that the parents had between each other, something like which she had not heard since she was a small girl, thirty years ago.

She absolutely hated what she was about to do.

“Wait!” She stopped, turning to look at Michi`s distressed and furious father standing behind her.

“Why?” he asked.

“Why what?” she replied.

“Don`t play dumb with me, Ripper.” She knew that this was going to happen. “You invaded my home, ate dinner with my family, and held them hostage against me without their knowing all so that you could spite me! And not only that, but you`ve been messing around with Michi, with my daughter, for months on end, forcing her to play your sick little game while you went about on a murder spree. You may have saved her life, but that doesn`t give you any right to control her life!”

It truly pained Seras to watch the man berate her. She knew, ever since she had consumed Captain Bernadotte, that she was nothing but a monster. And her fifteen subsequent years of service to the Hellsing Organization only compounded this fact. And it destroyed her when she had learned from Michi herself how much her father loved her, and how much she loved her father.

She had lost track of how many times her father had told her how proud he was, whether it was for straight A`s or even just for swimming the whole length of the community pool. Akumo Matsuzaka had been nothing but a kind and nurturing, if somewhat overprotective, father. Seras couldn`t help but think that her father would`ve been much the same as he.

He stepped right into her face. “You better stay the f***ing away from my family, or else, SSS-rating or not, I will absolutely murder you.”

Seras closed her eyes, and canceled her slight use of illusions. She looked at him with her real red ruby eyes, and he stared right back. She narrowed her pupils to cat-like slits, startling him a little. “I`m afraid you`re mistaken,” she declared, her voice resonating. “Your daughter died two months ago, and the only reason she continues to walk the earth is because I still permit it.” She turned and walked away, ignoring his confused calls after her, before he heard his wife shriek, and he rushed inside.

Tears of blood ran down her cheeks, as she felt Michi re-enter her being, who joined her in bemoaning their collective fate as Pip worked to comfort them.

Seras flew off into the sky as the day finished surrendering the sky to the night.

**Unknown POV**

He sat at his desk, sorting through a host of files on his computer, while his mind was focused on a host of other tasks.

Katsuo, how are things going with the Yakuza? he communicated, as he continued scanning through city archives.

Let`s just say that being a vampire makes taking over the underworld of a city TONS easier, the youth replied. Right now, literally all of the big name families and organizations are under my control, either directly or indirectly, and I can literally get dirt on practically everybody in the city from cops to the prime minister himself. The only group that I can`t get much insider info on is the CCG itself. All I need to do is clean up one or two loose ends from my takeover and my trail will be clean and the city will be mi- hers.

I hope that you don`t become too reckless. The man replied. He found a file pertaining to the Washuus. He downloaded it like the others. We don`t want to be busted by the metropolitan police of all people. Also, after you made that errand for Seras to Investigators Mado and Amon, they saw your face. They managed to get a sketch artist and run it through the system, and they know everything they need to in order to bring you in.

Relax, man. Katsuo Ishikawa replied. I`ve already burned all my bridges to my past life. Besides, we`ve got you, the lovely Ms. Kita and Her Majesty`s little pet demon possessing your former partner to keep track of the CCG`s movements, so we`ll know when they make a move. Speaking of which, how are we keeping track of the ghouls? Those guys we released doing their job?

Perfectly, he stated, as he copied the selected files to a flash drive. Thanks to them, we now have information on every organized ghoul group in the city, and the majority of the unorganized as well. We`ve also finally got the whole 24th Ward mapped out, thanks to the werewolf. Honestly, it`s pretty scary how easy all this is turning out to be.

Hey, did Seras ever tell you about Millennium? Katsuo asked.

Yes, and your point is?

She learned from those Nazi leftovers that the biggest advantage that vampires have over humans and ghouls is their ability to infiltrate just about any organization with near-impunity. These people were never trained to deal with an enemy that can literally become their friends and allies.

That`s a very good point. Still, we can`t take chances. We need to make sure that the CCG`s attention stays away from those of us within the CCG now.

Hey, that`s what Masahiko and Haruka are for, aren`t they? What with their fancy new weapons and all, they can probably kick anybody`s ass to kingdom come. Gotta say that Seiichi`s got a brilliant and twisted mind for weapons. Combine that with all our vampiric OP-ness, that man could destroy the world.

No kidding, the man laughed. He heard someone approaching. He returned his computer to normal operations. I`m afraid I have company. Can`t allow myself to be distracted.

Time to answer a curious question? Katsuo asked.

Shoot.

Why did she make you her first fledgling?

He paused a moment, composing his answer. She told me that I reminded her of herself.

The door opened. He stood up from his desk, as the door to the task room opened. “Greetings, Special-Class Investigator Shinohara.”

“Rank 3 Junior Investigator Renji Fujiyama. There`s something I need your help with.”

 

 


	9. Building Tension and Ruining Peace

**Akumo POV**

"Thank you very much for coming to us, Associate Special-Class Investigator Matsuzaka," Chairman Tsuneyoshi Washuu enunciated. "I don`t believe I need to stress just how vital your intelligence is right now."

"No sir, I am fully aware of how important this is," Akumo replied to the elderly gentleman. Seated before him was not only the long white-haired Chairman, but also his son, the Bureau Director Yoshitoki Washuu, Kyouji Misaka, Cochlea`s Warden, and Itsuke Marude. While the Chairman`s presence was unusual, the magnitude of the threat that Seras posed was more than sufficient explanation for his presence, as well as that of the Bureau Director. While Kyouji Misaka`s presence was also strange, the unchecked massacre in Cochlea under his watch had very nearly destroyed his career at the CCG, so Akumo reasoned that he had probably requested to take part in this, so that he could find some manner of vengeance against the ghoul so that he could reaffirm his place in the CCG.

There was literally nothing more important for the CCG than getting any and all information they could on the ghoul calling itself Seras Victoria. Unfortunately, finding information on the elusive monster was proving to be like finding the proverbial needle in the haystack. The monster has been one step ahead of them the entire time, but this latest incident with him and Michi might finally give them the edge they need to catch up with her.

"Alright then," Marude spoke up, picking up a paper in front of him. "According to your report, you had not known that Seras Victoria, the SSS-rated No-Life Queen, was already present at your home until you arrived, correct?"

"Yes," he replied. Although he had already typed a report regarding his unexpected meeting with Seras, it was a very objective and impersonal work that didn`t reveal the full extent of his private observations and opinions, hence this in-person inquiry. "After the assembly meeting where we were shown the video message that the Ripper had delivered to Investigators Mado and Amon, I immediately called my wife so as to get the family out of Tokyo. She was resistant to the idea, so we decided to talk it over in person when I returned. When my shift was over, I returned home to find my family eating dinner, and Seras was eating it alongside them."

"Why didn`t you try to call for backup?" Yoshitoki asked. "Even if you were aware that you couldn`t fight her single-handed, you could have at least done that."

"I couldn`t make any kind of move against her while she was in the same room as my family. If I did anything to provoke her, she would have not only killed me, but my entire family as well, which I simply could not afford to risk."

Marude questioned again. "Why was the No-Life Queen there?"

"My daughter, Michi, apparently had invited her over."

"Yes," Misaka said, looking through the file. "She also was the same person involved with the first recorded attack by this ghoul, back when the ghoul was simply known as 'Ripper.' Before then, did you have any suspicion that Seras had maintained some manner of contact with Michi before then?"

"During the first few weeks, I feared that she would come back for Michi, which was why I had requested protection for her," he replied. "At the time, I didn`t find that anything unusual going on, and my family was pressuring me to allow Michi a return to normalcy, so I withdrew the protection. In hindsight, I did notice that, according to reports from the assigned detail, she did go to the library up to eight times during the time they were assigned to her, which is probably when the Ripper met her again, possibly without Michi`s knowing of what she really was."

Marude stepped in. "Would I be correct in saying that this is based on the given reason that the No-Life Queen gave for being invited over by your daughter – that the two of them were research partners?"

"Yes," Akumo confirmed. "And according to library records, Michi checked out a number of books over the past two months regarding history, important Japanese families, and the occult."

"Well, it`s safe to say then that she was at least partially telling the truth regarding her relationship with your daughter," Yoshitoki stated. "What I would like to know is why she is so obsessed with the occult. According to your report, she says that the occult has been a big part of her life 'for a very long time.' What do you make of this, Investigator?"

"I believe that it is tied to the fact that she is not a normal ghoul, sir. Perhaps not even of the same species as the ones we have known all this time."

Silence. The four men were very good in not showing outward emotional reaction, but Akumo could see Marude` slight lean forward as a sign of interest, Misaka`s lean back as surprise, and the brief glance that Tsuneyoshi and Yoshitoki shared as worry, concern, and perhaps even a shared secret. Considering the Washuus did create and lead the CCG, which was at the forefront in researching and fighting ghouls, there was no doubt in his mind that there were probably a few details regarding ghouls that they were privy to that the majority of the organization wasn`t privy to.

This time, Tsuneyoshi spoke. "Please, explain what you mean."

Akumo remembered that moment, when she last looked at him. "In my report, I detailed that Ripper showed off blue eyes during the time she spent at dinner with my family. When I confronted her after she walked out the door, her eyes turned red, while the sclera remained white, unlike where a ghoul`s would black when it reveals its kakugan. And then the pupils of her eyes narrowed into cat-like slits."

"Her pupils narrowed into slits?" Yoshitoki repeated.

"Yes," he stated. "This is a very specific ability that I do not believe any ghoul we have ever encountered is capable of, and I believe that Ripper is very aware of this fact. Thus, if there is one thing that sets Ripper apart from other ghouls, it is almost certain then that there are other things that she is capable of, actively or passively, that we are not aware of. And because she is noticeably different than other ghouls, it is likely that she has stranger origins than most ghouls and she knows it. It is because of this that she studies all amount of amounts of history and the occult, as she is either looking for an explanation for her uniqueness or is already aware of how she came to be and is simply looking to recreate it."

"What do you mean when you say 'stranger origins,' Investigator Matsuzaka?" Misaka inquired.

"As I said before, I don`t believe Ripper to be any manner of ordinary ghoul. Considering that she is clearly from overseas, she may also be something that foreign divisions of the CCG are aware of that they didn`t inform us of, or may just simply have been that good at hiding her presence from everyone`s eyes for so long. Unfortunately, I can only speculate as to how she came to be what she is now, as it can be anything from a random mutation in ghoul genetics to deliberate experimentation for scientific or even military purposes."

The four men remained quiet. Unknown quantities have remained one of the greatest fears of humanity since time immemorial, and it has always been especially true for those whose livings depended on risking their own lives. For the CCG, due to decades of experience fighting and researching ghouls, their biggest advantages had always been their superior knowledge of ghouls, both in physiology and psychology, as well as the ability to recruit, train, and organize their personnel openly and safely without fear of repudiation from their enemies, on top of the simple fact that there are far more humans than ghouls, meaning that they could always gather a bigger army than the ghouls they battled.

But Seras has thus far proven very capable in undermining the CCG`s very strengths, by sowing discord among the people whose support they depended upon, penetrating their most secure facilities, compromising their assets, and by quite simply saying and doing things that baffled their experts at every turn.

If she abilities that were unknown to them, it would be simultaneously relieving and terrifying to behold, as it would explain how she managed to accomplish what she had up to this point but also prove to the CCG that she still held the edge when it came to information. It also warranted further caution when going up against her, because now there was no telling what she truly capable of in a fight. This meant that she could be holding back some kind of trump card that they weren`t aware of, allowing her to maintain the element of surprise.

Marude broke the silence. "One last question. What do you think this latest development with your daughter says about the No-Life Queen?"

Akumo stiffened.

**_Flashback Begin_ **

"I`m afraid you`re mistaken," she declared, her voice resonating. "Your daughter died two months ago, and the only reason she continues to walk the earth is because I still permit it."

He had been startled when she slitted her eyes so unnaturally in front of him, but this statement left his head spinning in absolute confusion.

"What do you mean dead for two months?"

As she turned to walk away, his mind raced at a million miles an hour to comprehend what she had just said.

"What do you want with Michi?"

At first he thought she meant that she was threatening to kill his daughter.

"What have you done to her?"

But her choice of words and tone of voice held a finality to them that suggested that something had already been done.

"Why did you save her life?!"

"AAAAAAAYYYYYYYIIIIIIIEEEEEEE!"

His heart choked. His throat froze. He turned back toward the house. "SAKURA!" He burst inside, following his wife`s screams to Michi`s room. She stood there, in the open doorway, unmoving, Mamiru similarly frozen by her side. He pushed his way past them inside.

He saw a corpse. It wore a filthy school uniform. It had long, black hair and bone-white skin, and it looked like it had been rotting away for a while. He recognized the massive wound in its torso as being from a rinkaku ghoul, and he could see a large bite mark on the neck, as if from a full mouth of sharp teeth.

And the face on the body, although decayed, was still recognizable as Michi Matsuzaka, his daughter.

He fell to his knees, and bent forward, touching, caressing the cold face of his daughter.

"Your daughter has been dead for two months."

"Impossible," he whispered, as he clutched the body to his bosom. Unfortunately, his instincts as a father, honed by many years of love and care, told him without a doubt that this was Michi, or at least her cadaver.

His rational mind vehemently denied the reality before him that his heart was moving to accept, tearing his soul in two as he emptied out the grief that welled up within in a roar of despair and rage.

**_Flashback End_ **

Akumo`s heart filled up with sorrow and hate. "I - I honestly don`t know what to make of it. When we found her in the immediate aftermath of the ghoul attack, the doctors said that she was perfectly fine." He could feel tears threatening to emerge, forcing him to fight them down. "We watched her for weeks for her protection, I kept in contact with her teachers and friends, I talked with her, walked with her, comforted her, did everything I could to be the best father for her that I possibly could and that **monster** just snatches her away behind my back and tells me to my face that she- no it, KILLED HER! It wants me to believe that the last two months of my daughter`s life was a LIE, and that the whole time the little girl who hugged and kissed me before going to bed every night she could was nothing but a PUPPET!"

He exerted immense self-control to calm himself down, breathing heavily like he had just finished a race and wiping his eyes so as to stop the tears from coming out. He had never been this emotional in front of his superiors before, but then again, he had never felt so helpless before.

Marude sighed, shaking his head sadly as he looked at another file. "I know what it`s like to lose a very dear friend, but I`ve never had a wife, or kids, so I can`t say that I fully understand what you`re going through. I wish that I could give you better news, but unfortunately the autopsy report pretty much confirms the worst. We ran facials, fingerprints, blood, dentistry, even X-rays. That is either Michi Matsuzaka or a very convincing clone. And I don`t know which one is scarier, because either way, it precludes the No-Life Queen knowledge and resources that are beyond anything we have-"

"DON`T CALL IT THAT!"

Marude looked back at him stunned. The other three were similarly surprised at the normally composed man who looked like he was ready to explode with rage.

"That bitch has no life inside of he- it, but that thing is no queen. We were right to name it Ripper the first time IT appeared. All it has ever done is destroy everything it touches. It didn`t slaughter ghouls for humanity`s sake, but for its own. It didn`t traumatize my comrades to teach some moral lesson but to destroy our peace of mind! It saved my daughter only to throw her life back in our faces and laugh at our misery! She is a manipulative, arrogant, sadistic, greedy, murderous, BITCH!

"For insult upon insult that it has heaped on the good men and women we hold dear, I refuse to allow it to so much as name itself. I will never acknowledge that thing as 'queen,' whether it`s alive or dead; Ripper is enough identity for that monster, and I will not acknowledge it as anything else."

The silence that followed made its predecessors noisy by comparison. Akumo immediately felt uncomfortable, as the grave faces the four men before him gave him the distinct impression he may have crossed a line.

Stiffening himself again, he bowed forward. "I apologize for my outburst. Although I have been going through very emotional trials, that was no excuse for me lose my temper and yell at you. I will accept whatever discipline you deem necessary." He straightened himself again, looking his superiors in the eye.

Tsuneyoshi Washuu opened his mouth-

The ringing of a phone was heard.

Very quickly, it was realized that Marude was the one in possession of the ringing device. At first, Akumo thought that it was careless on the man`s part to bring his device with him, but the look on Marude`s face when he looked at the smartphone told him that the man thought it was a serious concern. Looking at the other seated members, Marude received a nod from Tsuneyoshi to answer it. He pressed the answer button and held it to his ear.

"I do hope this is important." Quiet look of interest emerged on his face. Then shock as he shot up from his seat. "What?! When did this happen?" Marude`s teeth grit together as he continued to listen. "Alright, gather as much information as you can and then return to the Main Office ASAP!" He hung up, and turned to everyone else.

"That was Shinohara. There was a ghoul attack at Komaba High School. He`s on his way there now."

Akumo gasped. That was the school Michi attended.

**Touka POV**

As soon as she heard the bloodcurdling scream, she knew that today was absolutely ruined.

She was initially worried when word came down the grapevine when she arrived at school that Michi was missing and that the Ripper- no wait, now she the "No-Life Queen" ( _Asshole_ )- was believed to be behind it. But, as time went on, she found herself relaxing a bit more than usual around Yoriko and her new friend Nanami. It wasn`t that Touka hated Michi, but having the daughter of a Dove for a "friend" made her very paranoid, no matter if she wasn`t aware of her being a ghoul or not.

Touka had always been suspicious of the Dove`s kid, although she hid it very well when she interacted with her at school. Though she had Michi to thank for introducing her to Nanami, who was not only harmless as a fly but just as wholy good-natured as Yoriko. The girl was a hopeless otaku, but her obsessions constantly drove her to teaching her "philistine" friend Touka the ins and outs of anime and manga, which made for very funny conversations and made her feel more like a normal school girl.

But her paranoia went through the roof when Michi showed up at Anteiku out of nowhere and told them of a powerful "friend" who was aware of their true nature…

**_Flashback Begin_ **

_What. The. F***?!_

Touka felt that what she had just seen meant that she was either way more messed up in the head than she realized, or she was screwed beyond all belief. Considering that she was very aware of the scratches that she was leaving in the door with her fingernails, the latter scenario appeared to be the more likely case.

After Michi finally calmed down her demented laughter, the monster dressed in red that had oozed up from her shadow addressed everyone in the room again.

"Well, now that introductions are out of the way, I believe you have someplace where we can discuss things more privately?"

Yoshimura nodded his head. "Yes. Please follow me."

He then led everyone upstairs to where they usually had their "staff" meetings. Most of the employees opted to stand around the room, while Yoshimura and the thing named Seras sat down opposite from one another across a coffee table. Michi stood beside Seras.

"Before we begin discussing just why you`re here, I would like to know just how much you know about Anteiku," Yoshimura requested.

The monster smiled, and then pointed a finger at Touka. "Touka Kirishima. Daughter of Arata Kirishima, aka the Corpse Collector, who was captured by Investigators Yukinori Shinohara and Kureo Mado, whose kakuhou was harvested to create the exoskeleton armor quinque 'Arata,' before being subsequently disposed."

Touka was shocked.

Her finger moved again. "Kaya Irimi, aka the Black Dog, head of the Black Dobers. Investigator Chuu Hachikawa is still bitter at you for killing his subordinates biting off his lips."

This thing not only knew her name, but it had information on her father.

"Koma, aka the Devil Ape, leader of the Apes and ex-rival to Irimi and her Black Dobers before you were both brought into Anteiku."

The nickname the CCG gave him, who had captured him, and what kind of quinque they had made from his kagune.

"Yomo Renji, aka Raven, associated with Itori and Uta, who are known members of the ghoul gang known as the Clowns."

Only the CCG could have had that kind of information, and this thing had access to it.

"And Yoshimura, aka the One-Eyed Owl, founder and manager of Anteiku."

And she also knew everyone in the Anteiku organization. Touka may not be the smartest person in the world, she still broke her back studying to earn good grades, but she knew very well that someone who could learn detailed information about and from human and ghoul organizations alike would be very powerful and very dangerous.

Yoshimura`s face became even more serious as he watched Seras. "How do you know all this?"

Seras chuckled a little, creeping out Touka. "To be honest, I`m a little disappointed that you haven`t asked what I am yet, considering my little magic trick downstairs."

"I figured that it would be explain how you know so much," Yoshimura explained.

Seras` smile got bigger, showing off her teeth – a mouth full of jagged shark-like fangs that made Touka gulp.

"I`m a vampire," Seras declared.

For a moment, the room was quiet, then Koma spoke up. "Normally, I would say that there are no such things as vampires but, like you said, you`ve got a few magic tricks up your sleeve."

"Correct," Seras said, before explaining further. "There are some things about vampires that most believe that are true, especially the parts about drinking blood, nighttime activity, supernatural powers, a weakness to holy objects, immortality, and how a vampire can make another person a vampire."

Touka simply watched and listened, both scared out of her wits at being in the presence of such a monster, but also amazed at seeing something that was a living myth. She also found herself lowering her guard oh so slightly as she began to realize that, as intimidating as Seras was, the vampire did not appear to hold malicious intent towards her or anyone else in Anteiku.

"The reason that I know about Anteiku and the CCG so well comes from the powers I have at my disposal. For example, if I were to drink a person`s blood, I would also drink up their soul. By doing so, I would know everything that person did and have access to all of their memories. The final benefit to this is that I can then utilize that soul by using its energy to amplify my own strength and power, recover from grievous injuries, or even summon it to physical form again as a familiar."

"If I may, exactly what manner of relation does Michi share with you?" Yoshimura inquired. "The news said that you saved her life from a ghoul attack, but is there some deeper connection she has with you?"

"Nice catch there," Seras applauded. "Michi has the distinction of being the first familiar that I`ve acquired since arriving in Tokyo. It is largely thanks to her input that I`ve been able to get a firm footing on the events occurring in this city regarding ghouls and the CCG. And I have come to consider her a close confidant and friend."

"I see," Yoshimura mused. "And it`s through this that you`ve been able to gather so much intelligence in the first place, correct?"

"Yes," Seras answered. "And since you watch the news, you`re probably aware that I`ve eaten a fair number of people over the past couple of months, but the grand total is actually over four hundred in fact. Both ghoul and human."

This came as a surprise. When leaks from the CCG first came about the presence of the Ripper, the CCG were forced to publicly acknowledge that it was suspected to be behind the deaths of, at this point, over five dozen ghouls in the 10th Ward, with the possibility of more unknown ghoul and human deaths as well. The number Seras had given them was about seven times that, and included humans.

"If you`re wondering how the CCG doesn`t know the full tally, it`s quite simply the fact that I haven`t been prowling through just the 10th Ward. I have been to every ward in the city, including what you call the 24th. Also, it didn`t take long for me to figure that the CCG were on my trail, so I`ve allowed them to find the bodies of those I killed in the 10th Ward, and I made sure that I only killed ghouls there. This gave me the freedom to hunt in the other wards without drawing suspicion from the CCG, where I could strike targets and acquire familiars without anyone the wiser. Not to mention the fact that I have a few more vampires to help me as well."

"I hope you`re not planning to make any of us vampires, because life is bad enough without having to sleep in coffins during the day to avoid getting turned to ash in the sunlight," Touka said. She had finally overcome her stigma of silence that had been created by the presence of the vampire and her sidekick, who still had a smug, creepy grin plastered on her face.

"I couldn`t make you vampires even if you and I both wanted," Seras replied.

Touka`s curiosity was stoked. "Why is that?"

"I did try a few times to vampirize a ghoul, but ghoul physiology doesn`t permit it. I have some very good guesses as to why that is, but I`m waiting until I`m certain before I make conclusions."

"What are you trying to accomplish?" Everyone turned to Yomo, who had spoken. "And what do you need Anteiku for?"

"Wow, you`re generally the last person to say something," Irimi whispered, the last one in the room to say something.

"Yomo does have a point," Yoshimura stated. He looked Seras square in the eye. "From what I`ve seen so far, you have the power and opportunity to seize absolute control of Tokyo, or any other city for that matter. So what are you doing here? And what do we have to do with it?"

Seras` face lost its amused look and became serious and contemplative. Then she stood up. "Bringing a final end to an old war that refuses to stay dead. And I need your help to make it happen. I`ll contact you when it`s time for your part, but I would suggest you start contacting people and getting ready to service a lot more customers."

She then turned and walked out the door, Michi following and closing it behind them. Touka went and opened the door to pursue, but they had already vanished into thin air.

**_Flashback End_ **

After that meeting, Touka had seriously considered transferring to another school or just plain stopping. After all, it did cost a pretty penny to attend school in another ward, no matter the benefits of distancing her school persona with her ghoul activities. But, considering the vampire`s power, she doubted she`d be able to hide long from a monster with eyes and ears among both humans and ghouls, so she decided to continue going the next day.

That night, she and Anteiku had received a message from Seras that one of her vampires, a Dove named Fujiyama, who said that he was bringing in some ghouls broken out of Cochlea that she needed to keep hidden and dispersed throughout the city away from the CCG`s prying eyes. She also communicated that all the other ghouls in the prison were dead. The confirmation of an inside source in the CCG as well as what happened to Cochlea confirmed for Anteiku that, whether they liked it or not, Seras was now the one pulling their organization`s strings.

They spent much of the night spreading the former prisoners among their contacts in the 20th and 24th wards, finding places for them to stay and hide for the night and day before moving them again the following night to the places where Fujiyama indicated they needed to be for Seras` plans to work. Although they didn`t know why these specific ghouls had been chosen, they did so anyway, as they ducked under both the watchful surveillance of the CCG and the implied threat hanging over their head from Seras` knowledge of their operations.

Now she knew that her life was even shittier as she had a gut feeling of who was behind this latest incident now at her school, as she took off in the direction of the scream.

"Touka, wait up!" Yoriko shouted as she ran after her friend.

"Don`t forget about me!" Nanami yelled as she tagged along.

Soon, they came across a crowd of student gathered outside the girl`s restroom. Touka pushed herself through, squeezing first through the guys who were not being permitted inside because of the spectacle, and then through the girls, who were even more anxious being closer up, as well as being more sickened by the sight.

When Nanami saw, she went to the nearest toilet and hurled, just as another girl had left the stall after finishing puking out her guts into it.

"Oh no," Yoriko murmured, her hands covering her mouth. Although Yoriko didn`t know her well, she was still an innocent girl, so seeing a brutal murder horrified her.

Touka went back to her and hugged her, comforting her as she cried out her tears for a total stranger.

Throughout, Touka heard the students saying that it was a ghoul that had done it some of them wondering if it was a student and others wondering if the Ripper/No-Life Queen had done the deed.

She looked at the body of the girl that the others confirmed to be Chiasa Hara, someone she vaguely recognized, because Michi had met with her a few times in the cafeteria, along with a couple other guys.

Considering that the girl had her throat torn open, Touka knew for certain, based on recent events, what was behind it.

_Why_ , she thought. _What is the point of all this you f***ing vampire?_

**Seras POV**

Masahiko checking in, she heard. I`ve set the bait at my school.

Very good, Seras replied. Everyone, check in.

This is Rin, I can strike my target at any time.

Seiichi here, prepared and waiting. Awaiting orders.

Boss Ishikawa reporting for duty! All set to go, just waitin` for the word!

Can I start playing tag now?

Fujiyama calling in, Mistress. I`ve got all eyes on the CCG`s movements.

Seras breathed, as unnecessary as the action was. This operation was key to her intended climax. She needed the CCG to do as she expected them to in order to properly set everything up for the climax.

And not just the CCG, but the Washuus as well. If she wanted to not only complete her original mission, but also bring about a true conclusion to the human-ghoul war, she needed the Washuus to be able to finally read between the lines of her activity through this next action, and get really desperate. Or else nothing would work out in the end.

_I`m sorry for making you wait so long, Sir Integra. And I`m so sorry for getting you caught up in all this, Michi._

Alright everyone. As soon as you have an open window, go.


	10. Tokyo, We Have A Problem

**Shinohara POV**

He could only watch in sorrow as the men from the coroner`s office zipped up the body bag, enclosing the still corpse of a teenaged girl, and carting her away. The girl had died from blood loss after her throat had been torn open from a large bite wound. He had only arrived just in time to see that happen, so he turned to the nearest police investigator.

“What do we know about the victim?” he inquired.

The officer held back up his notepad and read from it. “Chiasa Hara. Age 16. Daughter of Umaeda Hara, a member of the Diet. According to the faculty, not among the very smartest of students, but she was rather popular among the students as well as an avid member of the kendo club and got decent enough grades to get through her classes rather comfortably.”

“Time of death?”

“According to the medics, she died literally only one hour ago.”

“Do we have video of who did it?” Shinohara noted the cameras placed at the corners of the hallways.

“There is no security footage inside the restroom itself, and we did check the hallway cameras but there is no one who entered the restroom who didn`t later leave it before when the victim herself entered. Basically, we have no idea how the killer got in and out

“Anything that would make her a target for a ghoul attack?”

“One of her friends is Michi Matsuzaka, the daughter of one of your people, and if I remember correctly, now a confirmed associate of the so-called No-Life Queen?”

_Of course_ , Shinohara thought. _The No-Life Queen is probably trying to tie up loose ends so as to have as much breathing room as possible for whatever she`s planning._ “Did she have any other friends?”

The officer nodded. “Yes. We talked to the students and the faculty, and they have told us that she was a good friend of Michi`s before she was attacked two months ago, and then she broke relations with her for a couple weeks before they were reacquainted. Her other two close friends are Katsuo Ishikawa and Masahiko Himura. The first is, according to gossip anyway, a member of the yakuza and the second is a star athlete in track and archery, as well as her boyfriend, although no one can confirm that.”

“Have you talked to them yet?” Shinohara asked.

The man shook his head. “According to students and staff, Katsuo hasn`t been in school for several days now, citing that his grandfather recently passed away, along with a number of family friends. Also, Masahiko hasn`t come to school today, and no one knows why.”

_Could those two be connected to all this as well?_

“Yoo-hoo! Boss-man!”

Shinohara couldn`t help but smile as he turned to his approaching partner, a pale androgynous boy with white hair and red hairpins worn like the Roman numeral XIII, crazed and playful red eyes, and red stitches on his right arm, the front of his neck, on his lip, and under his right eye. Dressed in his usual white button-down shirt with red suspenders and black pants with black shoes, Juuzou Suzuya took another spoonful of ice cream he had been enjoying when Shinohara learned about the ghoul attack at Michi Matsuzaka`s high school.

“Hey, Juuzou. Find anything?”

“Yeah! I found this little girl in a frilly pink poofy princess dress wandering around outside who was looking for a “Ghoul Detective”! She says she works for the Queen!”

Shinohara couldn`t help but slightly raise an eyebrow at that. More about the girl than Juuzou`s claims. “Really? And do you believe her?” Shinohara didn`t doubt his partner, as his abusive upbringing by ghouls had made him into a very brutally honest individual. And-

“Of course! You should always believe someone who has a giant battleax!”

_Wait, what?_

-One Minute Later-

Shinohara could hardly believe the sight that greeted his eyes.

Standing only a few meters away from him was a tiny little girl, no more than seven or eight years old, with giant blue eyes, ankle-length brown hair, an innocent smile that split her face in half, who was indeed wearing a “frilly, pink, poofy princess dress,”-

And with her was a giant, hot pink battleax with a hilt that was taller than he was and a sickeningly sharp-edged ax head that was bigger than his torso. Which she was casually leaning against her shoulder with only a hand to keep it from falling.

The ax alone confirmed that the girl wasn`t human, but he still had a hard time believing that even a ghoul of that age could casually wield a weapon that big, and if one somehow could, then it would be nothing short of extremely dangerous.

That`s why he still didn`t feel comfortable about his current situation despite all the police pointing their guns at her.

“See boss!” Juuzou cried excitedly. “She`s got the biggest battleax I`ve ever seen! When I get my quinque, I want it to be as big as that!” Then, he ran forward toward the girl.

“W-wait, Juuzou!” Shinohara sputtered, as the other police also called out to Juuzou.

“Kid, get out of the way!”

“Hey, what do you think you`re doing?”

He ignored all of them, of course.

 “Hello, Princess!” Juuzou greeted, bowing forward playfully. Then, swooshing his arms about fancily toward Shinohara, he declared, “Presenting my boss and partner, one of the great and mighty men of the CCG, SPECIAL-CLASS INVESTIGATOR YUKINORI SHINOHARA!!!”

Juuzou`s heraldic proclamation elicited silence from the police, a slight groan from Shinohara, and giggling from the little girl.

Juuzou then walked back to Shinohara`s side, while the man himself pondered briefly how to approach the little girl. Taking a deep breath, he put on his best smile and walked forward.

“Hello. I guess you already know my name. What`s yours?”

The girl`s smile got just a little wider. “I`m Haruka Tsukino! But you can call me Haru-chan!”

“You have a pretty name, Haru-chan.”

“Thank you Detective-san!”

_So far, so good._ He bet down to look the girl closer to her eye level. “So, you told my partner Juuzou that you wanted to talk to me. Right?”

“Uh-huh,” she nodded.

“You also told him that you work for the Queen? Who is the Queen?” He asked the question with a feeling he already knew the answer.

Haruka laughed, an adorable sound of joyful innocence. “You already know my Obaa-chan! She said so herself!”

“She`s your aunt?” No one in the CCG knew if Seras had any family or not. They had run her face and name through every database they could access, but had found nothing about her in any of them. In fact, there was literally no record of her anywhere they looked, as if she had been a ghost that suddenly came out of hiding.

She laughed again. “No, silly! She may not be my real Obaa-chan, but that doesn`t mean she isn`t!”

This elicited a small chuckle from Shinohara, who was still just a little disturbed at the scene before him. “Okay, okay. Well, you said that you wanted to talk to me. What do you want to talk about?”

There was a sparkle in her eye, as she excitedly asked him, “Do you want to be friends with me?”

Shinohara was immediately confused. “You want to be friends? With me?”

“Yeah! But not just you, because that would be no fun. I want to be friends with you and your friends. All of them!”

Shinohara could feel the sweat bead up on his forehead. _What is she trying to do? The No-Life Queen definitely put her up to this. But why?_ “That sounds like a great idea, Haru-chan. I have a lot of friends, but I don`t know how long it will take for you to become friends with all of them.”

The girl just shook her head and continued to impishly grin at him. “Don`t worry, it won`t take too long. That`s why I brought all of my friends.”

Shinohara`s smile disappeared as his face paled. At the same time, he belatedly noticed a shadow passing over…

CRASH!

He jerked back as **something** fell from the sky and landed right behind Haruka, cratering the walkway beneath it. Yells and screaming were sounding all around him as he took a look at what had appeared.

“No…”

First thing he noticed was that it was BIG. It was as big as a small, 4-passenger car and stood head and shoulders above him. The second thing was that it was dark blue with indigo pulses, almost the color of night. Third, it had the look of an anthropomorphic scorpion, complete with a long, flicking tail, claw-like hands and feet, and full-body segmented armor with a full-face mask complete with glowing red slits where the eyes should be. Fourth, it was laughing.

“It`s a… kakuja.” Shinohara turned to Juuzou, who was silent as he stared in silence and more than a little shock at the sudden appearance of this monstrosity. He may have remembered to bring his quinque and had it by his side, but without his armor quinque Arata, he knew that he didn`t stand a chance against the kakuja.

“What`s the matter, Investigator-san?” Shinohara`s attention went back to Haruka, who was now holding the battleax to her side, and still smiling as innocently as ever. “He just wants to play. And he`s not the only friend I brought!”

Looking around, Shinohara saw them. The kakujas. They were on the rooftops, leering down at the streets below. They were stepping out of alleys onto the sidewalks and into the streets. One even burst out from a manhole cover, breaking apart pavement in the process. They resembled gigantic, multicolored macabre parodies of birds of prey, arthropods, and every other branch in between.

Their appearance caused people to scream, panic and run away from them in every direction, causing cars to crash and people to get trampled. People also began calling on their phones, and more than one took pictures before going on their way.

Shinohara knew that kakujas were the rarest of the rare among ghouls. Those who had cannibalized their kind to extremes that most of their kind didn`t even dare, as they risked life, limb, and sanity for the sake of achieving greater power. And few of them had the lucky combination of genes that allowed them to develop their kagune into an armored shell that granted them greater strength, speed, and regeneration that was beyond the abilities of the vast majority of the ghoul population. Kakujas were, far and out, the most dangerous kinds of ghouls imaginable.

And Shinohara had lost count of how many of them had just appeared after the second dozen.

“Can`t you see? He really really really REALLY wants to be friends with you. My daddy taught me that friendship is all about sharing, so if you share yourself with somebody else, that makes you best friends forever!”

For the first time in years, Shinohara felt real fear settle into his gut. Not just because of the kakujas everywhere, but the implications their appearance made.

“Obaa-chan told me that I should make friends with ghoul investigators, because you try day and night to make friends with ghouls everywhere but you keep doing it wrong! So, me and my friends are going to go everywhere, looking for all of you, so that we can make friends with as many of you as we can!”

He and many other CCG Investigators had been quick to deride the No-Life Queen as arrogant and pretentious after seeing the video she sent. But looking at the kakujas all around him, at least five of which he could visually estimate to be SSS-rating, he could see why she was that way.

Haruka then pouted. “But we have to go home when nighttime comes, so we can`t play with you all day and we can`t make friends with all of you. We also can`t make friends with anyone who isn`t a ghoul detective, because she wants to do some other things first.”

Shinohara realized then and there, that they had severely underestimated Seras Victoria. If she was intelligent and powerful enough to hand control of a veritable army of kakujas to a little girl – an admittedly superhuman one – just what did that say about the size and strength of her organization? What did it say about her?

She smiled again. “But, I don`t mind. I get to have fun, meet new people, see new places, and make new friends!”

Right then, the kakujas then scattered in all directions, including the scorpion-like one who leaped over them onto the outside of the school, which it crawled up of before going over the lip of the roof and out of sight.

Haruka bowed and straightened again. “We all have to go now! I hope I can see you again later! BYE!”

Then she disappeared, kicking up a small dust cloud in her wake.

Shinohara stood there, supremely dumbfounded and literally shaking in his shoes. It took all the strength he had just to calm himself down over the next few moments, before he took out his cell and dialed the main office.

“Marude…”


	11. A Crisis Underway, and More Pain on its Way

**Renji POV**

[BACKUP!! WHERE’S OUR FUCKING BACKUP?!? THIS BASTARD IS ABOUT TO KILL US ALL!!!]

“Arima’s squad is on their way to your position now,” Renji said to the hysterical Investigator. “You just have to la-”

[GYYYYAAGG-]

Static. Then silence.

Renji sighed, then turned to Marude. “Sir, we’ve just lost Burai squad.”

“DAMN IT!” the man swore loudly, looking to the screen where Investigator Abarai’s squad had been fighting a kakuja that looked like a twisted, armored bear. The scene was filled with the strewn about body parts of humans, splatters of blood, a couple of trashed cars, a torn-up street, and even smoke snaking out from a few of the ruined shops and offices along the street.

_It’s a miracle that camera hasn’t been knocked out yet,_ Renji thought.

Currently, he was working alongside Investigator Marude in the mobile command unit to coordinate and track the movements of the CCG squads. The unit was currently stationed in the middle of the 10th Ward, which currently sat at the epicenter of an emergency evacuation zone the CCG and the police had set up to get civilians out of the reach of the sudden and very public invasion by an entire pack of ghouls.

While this certainly wasn’t the first time the CCG had ever dealt with a sudden mass assault by ghouls, this was certainly the first time they were all kakujas. The latest count put the total at fifty-two. And a good chunk of that number easily looked as big or bigger than the infamous One-Eyed Owl, the first SSS-rated ghoul in the CCG’s history.

The result was that, in the span of only four hours since the crisis started, the CCG had only managed to kill ten of the monsters. Five were killed by Arima’s squad alone, two by Shinohara’s, one by Kuroiwa’s, one by Houji’s, and the last by the combined teamwork of Mado and Fura’s squads. They, on the other hand, had already lost several hundred men, including dozens of Investigators in First-Class, several more Associate-Class, and two Special-Classes.

Not that this was necessarily bad news for Renji, however.

Seras, he messaged her. Another squad is dead. The CCG expedition’s losses are over twenty percent and rising, and sunset is still four hours away.

At this rate, the Washuus will have to resort to more desperate measures, Seras replied. But, we cannot allow their losses to become too severe, or else there will be chaos in the streets from all the ghouls that will come out of the woodwork to take advantage of their weakness. Tell Haruka to have her kakujas scale back their attacks a little. We want a victory, but not a wipeout.

You should be the one to tell that to her, he said, as he listened to more reports. From what I’m hearing, she and her five favorite kakujas are currently using the CCG’s 10th Ward branch office building as their own personal playpen. The kakujas capture Investigators, bring them to the offices, and let them loose to fight Haruka. She’s having the time of her life right now.

I don’t imagine the CCG will be very pleased once they learn that, Seras said.

They’ll learn about it soon enough, Renji replied. Arima and his squad are on their way toward the branch offices now.

Seras was quiet for a moment. Tell her that if she encounters Arima, she can fight him, but not kill him.

Understood. I’ll check up on everyone else now, he said, as he broke off the connection and made a new one.

Hello, Haruka.

Hi Renji-san! Are you okay?

I’m fine, he said. I heard that you’ve been making a lot of friends where you are. Is that right?

Yeah! She exclaimed. I’ve gotten a few of my playmates to help and I’ve met a lot of fun people! But I can’t play with a lot of them for reals very long, so I can only play pretend with them now.

Hey, Renji said conspiratorially. Someone`s coming that you can play with for reals.

Really?!

Yeah. It’s Arima.

You mean the really strong detective with white hair and glasses that Obaa-chan wants to fight?

That’s the one. Your Obaa-chan says if you meet him, you can fight him, but don’t kill him. She hasn’t had a turn with him yet.

Okay! I can’t wait! Thank you!

You’re welcome. Bye. He severed the link and made a new connection.

Investigator Kita, how are you holding up in Houji’s squad? 

Barely, she admitted, the tension and strain showing in her ‘voice.’ I don’t know how much longer I can keep myself from cutting loose and just tearing these monsters apart with my bare hands. My eyes have almost given away my secret to the others several times now, and all this blood is _begging_ me to just dive in and lap it all up, although I have managed to get away with a few sips here and there. I have to keep reminding myself to hold back my power but it’s getting more difficult with every passing moment.

I remember Seras saying that her master was so powerful that he allowed himself to be restricted so that he didn’t kill his enemies in an instant and he could drag out the fight as long as possible, Renji pondered. Perhaps after this is over you could ask her if she could do something like that for you.

That would be nice, Rin replied. I’ll keep that in mind. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have skulls that need cracking.

Alright. He broke the connection.

A new one was immediately made. Seiichi, how are things going with the JSDF?

Much as expected, he stated. Word’s coming in that the Diet is about ready to declare martial law and bring us in. I’ve already planted familiars in key positions in the quartermaster and communications divisions and gained a few recruits among the soldiers, even a couple of helicopter and jet pilots.

Any difficulties? Renji asked.

None so far.

Good. Connection broken.

Connection made. Masahiko, how is the clown-hunting going?

Rather well, the arrogant youth replied. I’ve been moving through the list of names and faces Seras provided from the Priest’s memories for hours now. So far, it’s just mostly been the small fry, although I did come across some of their bigger names, like Ganpo and Roma.

What were they like? Renji inquired.

Weak. Absolutely pathetic. But I did learn that their three most prominent remaining members were going to be gathering in the fourth ward, so I’m headed there now.

How’s the bow working out for you? Seiichi had been utilizing a combination of human technology, ghoul biology, and vampiric supernaturalism to craft new weapons for some of the members of their inner circle. He knew that Haruka received a giant battleax, he believed that Ishikawa had requested some kind of chain, he learned that he’d made another weapon for an unknown new member, and had found out that Masahiko had received a bow that could only be used by an archer with vampiric strength levels.

It’s. Fucking. Awesome! Ever since I got this thing I’ve been able to hit targets hundreds of meters away. Combine that with my third eye and a little touch of telekinesis, I can increase my range up to two kilometers! I’ve also figured out how to use my familiars to not only increase the accuracy of my arrows, but also to make some nasty trick arrows. I can make arrows that will home in on a particular target, others that can punch through even the toughest armor, even some that will actually start _eating_ the target as soon as it’s latched on!

Renji shuddered at the last one. I can see that you’re enjoying yourself. Keep up the good work, and I’ll be checking up on the others, heh-heh. Bye. Communication cut.

“What’s the matter, Fujimura?”

Renji jumped in his seat as his superior suddenly interrupted his mental communiques. “Sir, don’t scare me like that, you’ll give me a heart attack.”

“Heh, I don’t think Nakadai would be comforted to know that you still get spooked so easily,” Marude chuckled, before sighing. “Seriously though, what’s eating at you? Still recovering from that night?”

Renji chuckled a bit. “Yeah. I guess I still am.”

After Marude turned back, returning to grumbling and shouting, Renji made a final telepathic connection.

Katsuo. Is everything proceeding as scheduled?

He heard some sniggers come from the line. Ahead, actually. The target is completely cut off from the outside world. We’ve jammed their cell phones, radio signals and even cut the hard lines. In fact, I’m going to move in now, and claim whatever prizes offer themselves.

Take caution, Renji warned. We don’t want to have any rude surprises when that goes down, and you can’t give away too much of our abilities yet, so try to tone things down a bit.

Alright. Peace out. Connection broken.

**Katsuo POV**

He just loved kicking down doors. Not only the satisfaction that comes from destroying something, but also the sheer surprise that shows on people’s faces after they get so very suddenly interrupted and frightened. And ever since he became a vampire, the sheer obliteration he could dish out to the portals was much greater than before.

Kicking in the double doors of this particular building had sent the two steel doors flying down the hallway. Looking in, he could see a few stains of blood in a few places. _Looks like I hit someone with that. Or, several someones._ Focusing his senses, he found several presences hiding behind some of the features about the lobby.

“Come on now,” he called out. “I know you’re all hiding in here. If I’m right in fact, there are eight of you in here. (He heard a faint gasp) Three in the upper decks for ranged fire, and five scattered about here on the ground to attack from all sides the moment I walk all the way in. I don’t expect you all to just come out all at once and give me a proper welcome, but I do expect you to consider the lives of all the innocent people you’re protecting. I have a host of snipers outside, which you already know. If at least one of you doesn’t show their face and give me a real hello, I’ll tell them to shooting random people in the street. You got te-”

“Don’t bother counting down,” a feminine voice spoke out. It immediately reminded Katsuo of Rin, but it was a little more youthful, and its tone, while cold, was more dispassionate than furious. He turned to see a young woman walking out, dressed in a professional, dark blue suit and skirt with matching leggings, a red shirt with a burgundy cravat, short, pale blond hair with a braid running along the back framing a neutral face with grey-green eyes and almost-bleached skin.

_Why does she look familiar for some reason?_ He thought, raising an eyebrow.

“I am First-Rank Investigator Akira Mado of the Commission of Counter-Ghoul. Welcome to CCG Junior Academy 7.”

_Oh._

Then he doubled over laughing.

**Unknown POV**

“Who are you?” he asked, leveling his sword at the unknown figure that appeared.

He and the rest of his squad had been deployed by V to lend direct aid to the CCG to deal with the kakujas that were swarming everywhere and threatening to severely deplete the CCG’s resources and manpower. Their cover was quite simply that of being the mysterious investigators of the main office that were utilized as a last resort when the CCG was in truly dire straits. And now, considering the threat of the No-Life Queen was far greater than previously imagined, the CCG had never been more imperiled.

In fact, there were even rumors going around in the organization’s upper echelons that the No-Life Queen was even connected to the Progenitor, V’s secret of all secrets, that only true insiders were even marginally aware of and that only a tiny handful of its core members truly understood. With this in mind, V had been doing everything possible to find literally anything they could that could point to some clue about the No-Life Queen’s whereabouts and true nature. There were very few things that the members of V didn’t know, but when they were aware that their superiors were hiding key details from them in a given situation, they had real reason then to be afraid.

Still, although they arrived late to the crisis, they were still having an impact. They had been assigned to track down and kill those kakujas that had broken through the CCG’s permeable boundary to contain the crisis and that were getting out of the CCG’s reach. So far, that had been seven. And they had lost three or four of their own for each one they had killed. And they were just about to kill an eighth when someone literally dropped from the sky and plunged a sword into the kakujas face and down its throat, killing it.

The figure in question was young, but almost an adult, somewhat tall and almost lanky with a head of short black hair with the roots dyed silver. She wore what looked like a CCG Investigator’s overcoat dyed in dark purple over a black shirt with a black tie, heeled black boots, and black gloves. Her face showed a small, calm smile with ruby eyes. He couldn’t help but think she looked familiar.

“What does it matter if I tell you who I am?” the girl replied. “You’re still going to kill me anyway, unless you want to kidnap me. Like you would have done with Michi if you had found out the truth of her relationship with the Queen.”

That was when he remembered who she was, from when he’d been assigned to follow Michi Matsuzaka. _Make her hair completely black, her eyes hazel, and swap out the outfit for a school uniform…_

“Chiasa Hara,” he stated. Then he remembered a few more details. “But you’re a human, and you were killed only a few hours ago!”

The now-identified Chiasa chuckled. “So you guys are as much in the dark as the rest of the CCG, huh? You guys have no idea just how much shit you’re swimming in.” She then emphasized the point by pulling out her sword – a seven foot monstrosity of a thin, silver blade that glinted in what little sunlight there was on that cloudy day.

He and the others in his squad were very unsettled at this, then even more so when she narrowed her eyes to slits and held her sword at the ready. Her entire aura radiated power and danger.

_So, this is how I die,_ he thought. But, he didn’t care. And neither did his comrades, as they all attacked her as one.

**Kanou POV**

_Not now, not now. Not when I was so close!_

Akihiro Kanou had nowhere left to run or hide. And he had had no idea that he was in danger until it was far too late.

He had heard of the No-Life Queen, of course, and her apparent interest in the occult. However, aside from his connection to the Clowns, he had done nothing to gain the attention of the CCG or the criminal or ghoul underworlds.

He had been working on his experiments of ghoul-human hybridization for a while, and he had had gotten close to finding Rize Kamishiro to use her kakuhou to perfect his work. The preparations were even still being made.

Now, he was staring death in the face, as the No-Life Queen herself had suddenly smashed into his hospital office and now had him pinned to his desk with a powerful hand gripping his neck, ready to crush his throat.

“Where are they?” she asked.

“What?” he asked, although he had a good idea of what she was talking about. The one thing that the clowns had provided him that had given him the insight needed in order to make his project possible.

“Millennium’s research data! Tell me or I drain you and find out myself!”


	12. The Seven Deadly Sins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kakuja Crisis Part 3

**Akira POV**

Knowing now that he was a vampire, Akira now saw how easily he had beaten them.

“STOP! PLEASE, NOOOOO!”

It took the Investigators seconds to charge him and bring their weapons to bear on him, both ranged and melee. It took him only an instant to bring out his chains. And less than a minute to kill or incapacitate all eight of them.

SQUELCH!

Then his goons stormed the academy, accompanied by a coterie of what looked like schoolgirls with red eyes and shark teeth.

 “HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!”

Akira could now only watch in horrified silence as yet another of the CCG Academy’s female students was dragged forward by a yakuza thug from the terrified huddle on the far side of the gym. She was tossed at the feet of the monster called Katsuo Ishikawa, who then latched his jaw on her neck and drained her dry of blood. When he was done with her, he handed her off to the henchman on his right, who dragged the body away.

Finally, she decided to speak up.

“Why?”

He turned his slitted red eyes toward her. “Hmmm? Why what?” He then beckoned with his hand, and the chains that bound Akira to her seat suddenly came alive and lurched her toward him, stopping only when his hand touched her chin.

“Why did I become a vampire? Immortality. Power. Women. Wealth. Every treat and treasure in the world in the palm of my hand. Why have I gone through all the trouble of besieging and invading a school full of impressionable CCG cadets? To leave my own little _impression_ on them, and the CCG too. Why am I tormenting you so much? Because I met your daddy. He was one of the funniest-looking things I’ve ever seen, and I can’t WAIT to see the look on his face when he sees the end result of what I’m doing with you!”

“Why are being such a weak, petty and pathetic little shit?” Akira asked with scorn.

Katsuo’s eye twitched for a moment, but his toothy grin never broke. Akira waited for it, when his anger would cause him to lash out, either slapping her across the face or beating her to a pulp.

Instead, surprisingly, he took a breath, calmed himself, caressed her cheek, and then spoke. “Because I wanted to show you exactly what you’re going to become, my dear.”

He opened his mouth for her to see, and clamped his jaws onto his tongue, causing it to bleed. Then he grabbed her face, shoved his lips onto hers, and forced his tongue inside.

The chains stopped Akira from lashing out at him, his hand kept her from biting his tongue off, and his mouth muffled her screams as blood filled her mouth, causing her to choke, and forcing her to swallow.

**Uta POV**

Uta groaned as his arm, torso, and head stitched themselves back together after _something_ had suddenly exploded through the walls and tore holes through all of them. As his faculties and senses returned, he struggled to think of how exactly this happened and thought back to see if there had been a clue.

He was sitting with Itori at the bar in Helter Skelter as Souta arrived to talk over things with them regarding news he’d heard and plans he had made. He told them that, in the Cochlea jailbreak, both Sachi and Crown had been killed. He alerted them to be on guard against the No-Life Queen, as every member of V had been put on full alert to be ready to move at any time. In fact, he told them that they’d even been deployed against the kakuja horde that the No-Life Queen had unleashed in the 10th Ward. But what had Souta absolutely giddy with glee was that he had finally gotten a lead on the whereabouts of lifelong obsession, Rize. He went to share exactly what he had learned-

And that was the moment a sideways storm of metal rain ripped the bar apart – and all three occupants with it.

As he finally got himself fully healed, he got up, then looked behind him. Dotting the wall he looked at, he saw what at first looked like oversized mottled silver nails. Pulling one out, he inspected more closely, and he found that the metal looked awfully akin to the quinque metal the CCG used. However, he couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but it felt, somehow, like it was alive, but not quite…

His sharp hearing suddenly picked up movement just outside as he turned towards the door.

“Good job surviving that volley.”

The door opened, revealing something truly surprising to Uta’s eyes. The figure was a young man in his late teens, very tall for his age, with a head of brown hair tied back in a long ponytail. He was dressed in a traditional kyudo outfit with a reverse color scheme of a white bottom half and black top half, and held a massive, thin bow made out of what looked like a darker-shaded iteration of the same metal the nails in the wall were. For some reason, he had no quiver on him.

“Your two companions, it seems, weren’t powerful enough to survive getting pierced though the head and several vital organs all at once. But you, on the other hand, were powerful enough to not only recover from that, but do so in a matter of mere minutes.”

Uta let no emotions slip as he gazed impassively at the strange intruder, who had a most peculiar scent to him. “You want to have a fight with me, correct?” he responded.

The boy nodded, his self-assured grin growing only wider. “Unfortunately, this place is too cramped and public for one. But, would I be incorrect in believing there’s an entrance to the 24th Ward somewhere around here?”

Uta nodded, and jerked a thumb. “Sure. Follow me and I’ll bring you there.”

Uta walked and the strange archer followed. Soon, they had come to hidden door, and the two took the stairs down into a long tunnel with low lights that gave just enough illumination to allow sight. The two stood apart from one another and measured each other up.

Uta spoke first. “Before we start, could you tell me your name? Mine is Uta.”

“Himura Masahiko, a real pleasure to make you acquaintance.”

Uta the asked, “Why do you want to fight me?”

He showed his sharp teeth in his grin. “There’s someone I want to fight in the future, but right now I need practice before I can do that. My boss, the No-Life Queen, has tasked me with the hunting and extermination of the ghoul organization known as the Clowns. Since the Clowns were such a powerful organization in their heyday, I figured that there was at least a few members who give me a decent fight so that I could get in some real practice. But, I’ve killed every remaining member on the list I was given and not a single one of them even survived the first shot.”

Inwardly, Uta was shocked that the Clowns had been so thoroughly purged so quickly that he’d never had a chance to even learn that it was happening, but he didn’t let it show. “But, since I survived, you feel that I could actually make you fight for real, and you brought us down here so that no one would interrupt our fight. Am I wrong?”

“No, you’re spot on.”

Then a massive arrow suddenly fell out of Masahiko’s large sleeve into his hand, which he then strung to his bow and drew, drawing a direct line to Uta’s heart, all done so fast that Uta was even impressed, as he noted where the archer was keeping his arrows.

“I believe that’s been enough talk. Shall we begin?”

Uta’s face lost its impassiveness, instead taking a look of pure concentration, as Uta readied himself for what he felt was going to be the hardest battle he’d ever fought.

**Shinohara POV**

“Shinohara,” Mado’s voice came over the radio. “We’ve cut Crab and Gorilla off from the elevators and the stairwells, we can now snap the trap on these monsters.”

“Come on! We’ve got them both where we want them!” Shinohara called out to his squad.

Shinohara and Mado’s squads had each been pursuing their own kakuja ghoul when both of their respective targets entered the same building. Deciding to work together, Shinohara’s squad took up the task of confronting the pair head on and chase them up while Mado’s squad went higher up to cut them off from the upper floors and move down to trap the two between them. Luckily for them, the two kakujas they were fighting, hastily codenamed Crab and Gorilla for their macabre similarities with the animals, seemed more interested in playing tag than slugging it out with entire CCG squads. This was a relief for both Shinohara and Mado, as both men had already lost several subordinates to the monsters that day and they’d heard from Marude that multiple squads had already been completely wiped out.

As Shinohara burst out of the stairwell onto the floor, he could see that the kakujas had made a right mess of the place. What was once a typical corporate room stuffed with cubicles now had more than a passing resemblance to a disaster zone, with parts of furniture, drywall, electronics, office supplies and even food scattered all over the place. He could see both his and Mado’s men had the two kakujas surrounded and were intermittently striking them in turns, either at range with Q bullets and jumping in to strike with quinques, keeping the two from lashing out and keeping them contained in the center of the room.

Seeing Mado and Amon on the other side, he shared a look, and they both nodded. Shinohara looked to his side at Juuzou, who smiled and also nodded. They had all taken part in killing kakuja ghouls, and so they all knew what to do. Shinohara and Amon, being the harder hitters, and because Shinohara had his Arata armor, charged in first, clashing with Gorilla and Crab respectively head on. Then, Juuzou came over Shinohara and Gorilla to strike at Crab from behind, and Mado came around Amon and Crab to strike at Gorilla. Both ghouls had been fighting for some time, so their armor was cracked and failing in some places, with their once-impressive regenerative attributes strained too much, so Juuzou and Mado’s blows proved fatal, and the two ghouls groaned their last and fell.

Relieved, the men of the two squads cheered their victory. Shinohara looked to Amon, and smiled. “Good work there, Amon. I think you’re due for a promotion when all this is over.”

Amon just shrugged. “I’m just doing my duty, sir. But, thank you.”

“And some praise for your partner as well, Shinohara,” Mado interjected. “Juuzou is an excellently instinctive fighter, he has great potential to be a great Investigator.”

“Thanks, old man!” Juuzou cheerfully cried.

Shinohara just laughed as Made groaned “If he would just learn a little respect for his elders.”

The celebratory mood was broken when one of Mado’s men called out, “Sir! There’s something you need to see!”

Mado turned to him. “What is it?”

The man turned to the side and jerked his head over, and then two men from Mado’s squad came in, bringing with them a man dressed in a torn and tattered black CCG uniform with a fedora on his head and a snapped quinque katana in his hand.

Shinohara gasped. “He’s one of the Main Office Investigators!”

“Who?” Amon asked.

Mado answered him. “They are an elite squad of Ghoul Investigators. They are generally only sent when there’s a job that needs doing that no one else can tackle, or if the CCG is in dire straits. It seems this influx of kakujas was enough to warrant their deployment.”

Amon stepped forward and addressed the man. “Sir, are you alright? What happened?”

“You all need to get out, **now** ,” the man said, quivering.

“What? Why? Is there another kakuja in the building?”

He shook his head. “No, something worse. And it will kill you all i-”

SHINK!

A long blade suddenly speared his head, cutting off what he was about to say, startling the two men holding him up and Amon enough to make them fall back in surprise and shocking the rest of the room. They then watched as the blood-tipped blade slid back up, stopped and then sliced a circle in the ceiling, causing the section to fall and crush one of the men who’d brought the black-coated Investigator in.

“The sound of crushed bones and squashed guts, the smell of blood and fear, and the power to end lives with the flick of a wrist. Aaaaaaahhhhhhhh, there’s nothing more arousing for a little monster like me.”

What they saw then had them all stunned, but none more so than Shinohara, who gaped like a fish at the sight before him. He didn’t recognize the outfit, the color of the young woman’s hair, or the sword, but he recognized the lust-lidded eyes and the young, smiling face.

“Are you, Chiasa Hara?” He asked.

The strange girl looked at him. “Why are you asking? Should being dead earlier today stop me from being me? Geez, people are so shocked today that I’m still alive. Kinda.”

A thought suddenly came to Shinohara. “Wait. If you’re here and still alive, does that mean Michi Matsuzaka is also still alive?”

Her grin grew even wider. “Good deduction, Sherlock! But not quite right, either.”

“Wait, Shinohara,” Mado interrupted. “Do you know this girl? What are you two talking about? What’s going on?”

“Sorry boys,” Chiasa said, holding out her sword. “Questions are for later. Right now, I’m a feeling **very** turned on by all fighting and blood, and I need your help to get me even higher.”

Shinohara gulped. From the blood on her clothes, he could tell that she had killed more than just the one Main Office Investigator, and if she had been fighting multiple members of the elite group, he knew that they were in real trouble.

**Houji POV**

_Damn it_ , Houji thought, as he stumbled into a small shop, carrying a broken quinque and dripping blood behind him. He made his way to a storage room, found a first aid kit, and starting seeing to his wounds.

His squad had been taking good care of a wolf-like ghoul and he was about to fire the killing shot when a pair of kakuja ghouls suddenly ambushed his men on the ground and an unseen ukaku had sniped his position and broken his weapon. Thankfully, he had been able to radio for backup to help him get out, but the mobile command center couldn’t guarantee aid, as all of the other squads were also engaged in battle with their own kakujas. And so, he held no illusions about his current situation, and he believed that it was more than likely that one of the kakujas was going to stumble across his blood, and follow it straight to him.

“Special-class Investigator Houji,” a harsh voice declared.

Looking up, Houji noticed the sharp figure of Rin Kouta, the First Rank Investigator that had been attached to his squad for the duration of the kakuja attack.

He sighed. “Thank goodness that not all of my men were wiped out. It would have been a great shame if my entire squad was wiped out and only I survived. It’s shameful that I didn’t try to help them, but there was nothing I could do at that point.”

Kouta stepped forward and crouched to his eye level. “Don’t apologize, it’s not something for you,” Kouta responded.

“You’re right, you’re right.” A thought suddenly occurred to him. “Wait. How did you get away from the No-Life Queen’s ghouls?”

She smiled. “I killed them.”

Houji suddenly felt his instincts scream at him to run as far away as possible. “That’s not possible,” he shuddered.

Her eyes flashed red and the pupils slitted. “It is when you’re a vampire.”

She lunged forward and sank her teeth into his neck, swallowing up his blood and his soul. When she finished, she snorted in disgust.

“You’re such a piece of shit, Houji. I’ve eaten ghouls with cleaner souls than yours.”

**Tsuneyoshi POV**

_Everything’s falling apart_ , Chairman Tsuneyoshi Washuu thought as he relieved himself.

Kakuja ghouls were swarming all over multiple wards. Squads were dying left and right. V was getting its ass handed to it by some chick with a stupid long sword. And for the cherry on top, there was plenty of evidence to suggest that the No-Life Queen was an opponent too powerful for anyone in the CCG or ghoul underworld to take care of.

_If the No-Life Queen is what I think she is, we may even need to sick the Progenitor on her._

This was an option he **really** didn’t want to resort to. The Progenitor was the trump card of all trump cards, to be used for nothing less than a scenario where the fate of all of society was at stake. The last time they’d used him, half of an entire city had been destroyed. If they deployed him here, the death toll would reach into the millions and whole wards, if not all of the city of Tokyo itself, would be destroyed.

To make matters worse, he’d been forced to have a meeting with the Prime Minister himself along with heads for top intelligence and law enforcement agencies and generals for Japan’s various Self Defense Forces. The topic of discussion had been the No-Life Queen and just how much of a threat she posed. They had considered an entire slew of horribly necessary options, from martial law to inviting U.S. forces and from evacuations to full-blown quarantines. And he knew that there would ultimately be hell to pay for the entire Washuu clan if they were forced to send the Progenitor and the government came banging down their door for hiding such a force of nature from their view.

He kept a scowl on his face as he came out of the stall, but was surprised to see Quartermaster General Seiichi Nakagawa washing his hands at the sink.

“Everything’s gone to shit, wouldn’t you agree Tsuneyoshi?” Seiichi asked him.

“Yes,” he replied, as he walked to the sink himself and started washing as well. “What I hate most about all this is that I don’t think we’ve even made it through the worst of it, yet.” He looked at himself in the bathroom mirror, once again unsatisfied with what looked back. “Seiichi,” he said as he turned.

He froze. He could see Seiichi standing in front of the mirror, but he could see no reflection of him in it.

The man simply smiled. “You will make a great familiar, Chairman Tsuneyoshi Washuu.”

At that moment, a female JSDF soldier suddenly appeared to lean forward through the wall right in front of Tsuneyoshi. She slapped a hand on his mouth to keep him from screaming, and chomped on his throat.

**Eto POV**

“I’ve had enough of you, bastard.”

CRASH!

Dust filled the expanse of the empty tunnel and continued to be spread about, as Eto battled against the suddenly-traitorous Jason, both in their kakuja forms, as Eto used her superior size, strength and range to crush her adversary, while Jason used his speed and mobility to dodge around her and strike at her sides and back. While both ghouls were powerful and experienced fighters, Eto could see that the advantage was hers, and that victory in this battle was close.

However, looking into Jason’s eyes, she could see that he wasn’t all too concerned with that notion.

After all, he had already achieved his objective.

As a founder and the head of Aogiri Tree, Eto had long been planning for when their organization would wage war against the Commission of Counter-Ghoul, but their initial focus was gathering recruits and weapons so as to have the strength to go into open battle against them. They had been strengthening themselves for months, preparing for when they would go to war with the CCG.

When Aogiri Tree had first learned of the ghoul known only as the “Ripper,” they could not help but desire to learn more about the enigmatic creature that had stolen the attention of the entirety of Tokyo. And so, they had sent people out to try to recruit her, but they came back saying they had never found him. So, they sent out Jason and his White Suits to retrieve the Ripper instead, knowing that he would either come back with results, or not at all.

Two nights after they had been dispatched, they learned that Ripper had staged a massive jailbreak and assault at Cochlea. Ripper had managed to, with the aid of a select group it was suspected, sneak in and out of Cochlea unnoticed, taking a number of ghouls with them, and leaving everyone else in the prison, ghoul and human, dead.

With the chaos the CCG was undoubtedly experiencing, the Aogiri Tree Executives had decided that they needed to step up preparations for an attack on the CCG, so as to capitalize on the advantages the timing presented. At the same time, it was also an effort to maintain pride, morale, and membership. The first two because a feeling had been spreading through the membership that they weren’t being taken seriously and that the Ripper was stealing their glory, despite whatever benefits came from being potentially underestimated and ignored. Also, rumor had it that some ghouls had been flocking to the 10th Ward to either seek out the Ripper’s protection or join in whatever crusade it had embarked upon. Whether or not that was true, the reality was that the Ripper’s reputation had become so potent as to scare away potential recruits and even cause some of their weak-hearted comrades to desert them and hide away.

Thus, when they learned that the Ripper – newly re-identified as the “No-Life Queen” – had unleashed a horde of kakuja ghouls in the 10th Ward, drawing the full attention and power of the CCG, Aogiri Tree immediately moved to leap into action to launch their own full-scale assault and wrest control of at least one full ward away from the CCG.

Then Murphy’s Law happened.

Just as their forces had been gathering, readying themselves to stage their attack on the 11th Ward Branch Office, several of them suddenly manifested full kakuja armor and began attacking their own. Chaos, confusion and panic immediately swept through their ranks, as everyone knew the only kakujas in Aogiri Tree were among the Executives, not the foot soldiers. At first, no one knew either the reason or cause because their power or motives, but Eto knew as soon as she learned exactly who it was that had betrayed them, especially when the White Suits also reappeared out of the blue and began attacking them-

They all had been sent to find the No-Life Queen. Which swiftly led to the conclusion that they not only had contacted her, but she had also, somehow, recruited them, empowered them, and turned them right back around to attack their former brothers-in-arms.

Thankfully, she quickly noticed that, despite the kakujas’ power, they lacked the same experience that she had to utilize it to it to its full potential, so they were eventually able to get a handle on the situation after a while.

The only real threat among the traitors was Jason, who was an experienced fighter and possessed a kakuja of his own before his recent upgrade, which was why she had taken him on herself at full power. The battle between them had been pretty even, but Eto had been able to force the battle underground, where Jason’s mobility was more limited, allowing Eto to land her blows on him more often.

Then, as Jason lunged forward again, Eto got in a shot from her ukaku and caused him to stumble, giving her the opening to bring her massive koukaku talon on his side, where his armor was weathered and cracked, taking off his arm and destroying half of his body in one blow.

Jason, however, didn’t yell or scream, as she imagined he should have, based on what she knew about him. He had acted odd the entire time. While he was a generally sadistic cannibal who enjoyed toying with CCG Investigators and ghouls alike, it was her experience that he would get easily frustrated and fly into a rage if his toys didn’t play along like he wanted. The whole time they were fighting, however, he had been laughing like a maniac, even though he had been losing the battle from start to finish.

“You knew you weren’t going to beat me from the start, didn’t you?” Eto inquired of him, after she had dispersed her kakuja form.

He laughed again, as he lay weakened, battered, with blood and guts spilling from him like a cornucopia. “Of course. That arrogant Dove sent me here to die on purpose.”

Eto’s eyebrows shot up. “A Dove?! You’re telling me that the No-Life Queen is a DOVE?!?”

Jason cackled. “No, but she’s got some working for her.”

Eto grit her teeth. “The timing of your attack was far too coincidental. You and the others were sent to keep us out of your Queen’s little battle with the CCG.”

He bellowed at that. “You’re right. And from what my Master showed me, she’s got more like all over the city, keeping all the ghouls in line, making sure they don’t make any moves she doesn’t like.”

“What are her plans, Jason? Tell me!” Eto shouted.

He huffed. “Sorry, not allowed to answer that. Besides, my Master calls, and I can’t refuse him.”

Then, to Eto’s shock, Jason’s entire body suddenly _melted_ , as if dissolving into blood, before flowing away of its own volition _up the wall_ and through the cracks in the ceiling to disappear into the ground above, leaving no trace of Jason’s body behind.

Stunned, and questioning whether what she saw was actually real, Eto was left alone with her thoughts, confusion, and nightmares.

**Arima POV**

Just as Arima and his squad made it to the foot of the 10th Ward Branch Office of the CCG, Arima felt something trying to settle into his being:

Exhaustion.

For Kishou Arima, this was a very rare sensation to the point of being alien. As skilled as he was with the weaponry he had, the number of people who could actually challenge him in a one-to-one confrontation could be counted on one hand. When he went on exterminations, most groups of ghouls couldn’t even manage to pose him any sort of real problem, as IXE and Narukami were the very best of paired quinques that the CCG had ever made, and customized to Arima’s own fighting style. Thus, Arima had rarely ever gone into a fight that forced him to truly exert himself.

However, eight consecutive fights with Owl-level kakuja ghouls of varying types made conserving one’s energy very difficult, and Arima could feel beads of sweat on his brow and a feeling of tiredness was just beginning to make itself felt in his bones. And looking at the Branch Offices, he could tell that he was going to have to strain himself further, as the smashed windows and blood on the sidewalks and inside the lobby revealed that they had been stormed by the ghouls. There were also several bodies outside, with splatterings of blood suggesting-

SMASH!

The attention of Arima and the rest of his squad was suddenly drawn to a body suddenly flying through a window on one of the upper floors of the building. It somersaulted head over heels as it plummeted and hit the ground headfirst with a loud *SPLAT* turning the head into paste, shattering every bone in its body, and sending blood, bone, and guts all over the pavement around it.

“Hey! You down there! Can you hear me?”

Surprised by the unusually loud and girlish voice, Arima returned his gaze to the place where the body had flown out of. He saw, leaning out the broken window, a small girl in a very poofy and frilly red dress, like a princess costume.

Although confused, he decided to respond. “Yes! Do you need help?”

He saw her shake her head. “Oh no! I don’t need help right now! But, thank you all so much for coming all this way! Just wait right there! I’ll come down to greet you myself! And don’t worry, my friends won’t hurt any of you!” Then she disappeared inside.

“Sir,” one of his squadmates, Rikai Souzu, said. “Something feels very… _wrong_ , here. I believe that extra caution is warranted.”

“Duly noted,” Arima replied. There was only one other way of describing the feeling that came over him when he saw that girl: unnatural. A similar feeling he had when he saw the video of the No-Life Queen for the first time, only the feeling with her was significantly magnified from this one for the Little Princess, which was not insignificant by any measure.

“I’m here!” the girl shouted from inside the lobby. Everyone in the squad tensed as they waited for the girl to appear. And appear she did, walking into their view with all the innocence and carefree joyful nature of a schoolgirl off to her first day of class.

While covered head to toe in blotches and streams of red blood over a pink dress and carrying the biggest battleax they had ever seen (which was also pink with red blood stains all over) with as much effort as one would in carrying a staff.

When she laid eyes on Arima, her face lit up as if she’d found Prince Charming.

“You’re Arima? Right?” she asked, way too cheerful and innocent about the situation.

Arima, keeping his emotions under control, simply nodded, deciding not to waste any more words with her.

“YAY!” she exclaimed, as she started bouncing on her feet. “Mr. Dove had told me that you were coming, and that you were strong enough to play with me for reals!”

_Mr. Dove?_ Arima thought. _So the No-Life Queen has infiltrators inside the CCG._

“I wish today was my birthday, then it would have been an even better party! I mean, we’ve had everything! Field trips! Friends! Food and drinks! Games! And now, I have enough time before dark to play with the strongest detective in the world! This is the best day EVER!!!”

Arima’s feeling got worse. He could tell that, despite the child’s madness, she was far more powerful than she seemed, if the bodies and the giant weapon were any indication.

The girl then hefted the weapon, twirled it in her hand like a baton, then brought it down into her other hand in a ready position. “Ready to start?” she asked.

“Stand back,” Arima ordered. His squad retreated away to a safe distance, enough room for him to use IXA and Narukami without having to worry about them getting in the way, and far enough that they would be able to respond to anything the girl might decide to throw their way. Once he was content with his squadmates’ positions, he visibly readied his quinques, looked the smiling girl square in the eye, and nodded once. She bared crocodile teeth in response.

Then she _blurred._

For a moment, Arima was shocked, as the girl leaped forward at him so fast that he barely perceived the movement. Almost as if swimming through honey, his mind saw in slow motion the girl speeding toward him at an inhuman velocity, her massive ax swinging in from the side to bisect him in two. His body reacted out of pure instinct, switching IXA from attack to defense the moment he’d seen her move, bringing it up to block the mortal blow. Simultaneously, he was bringing Narukami around, so that when the shield blocked her ax, she would be open just long enough to bring his other quinque in a slash that would cut her in two. The shield formed just enough to receive the blow that arrived the very next instant.

The strike hit him so hard, he was knocked off his feet, ruining his follow-up.

So, while he was falling back from the girl’s blow, he brought IXA to his side to get his balance back, while he shifted the mode of Narukami, and fired electrified ukaku blasts at the Little Princess.

The girl backpedaled, barely dodging the first and second and got herself clipped by the third, briefly letting loose a girlish shriek into the air as the electricity rapidly coursed through her body.

Arima regained his balance, and the Little Princess her breath.

As he paused for the briefest of moments, he saw that the girl, despite the pain she had felt, was still in perfect condition to fight, and the grin that returned to her face as she slitted her eyes simply confirmed it.

He had also heard the slight gasps from his squadmates, which revealed the worries they had for him, something which they had never expressed in such fashion before.

And for the first time since he could remember, Arima feeling became a twinge in his stomach, producing another foreign sensation:

Fear.


	13. This is But the Opening Salvo... Kakuja Crisis Arc Part 4

“Speech”

_Thought_

Telepathy

<Phone>

**Hisao POV**

*BZZZZ*

_Come on,_ he thought. School had been unceremoniously canceled early after the corpse of Chiasa Hara had been found in the lady’s room. While he had been glad to be able to leave school early (despite the grotesque reason for doing so) it wasn’t long after he’d arrived home before a CCG-mandated emergency evacuation order was issued for his ward, because of the sudden uprising of kakuja ghouls who had come out of nowhere.

*BZZZZ*

He and his family had been given no time to pack as they jammed themselves into the family car and rushed to escape the CCG perimeter as soon as possible. Traffic thankfully was not as bad as it could have been; it was still a pain to endure. After leaving the perimeter, they were escorted to a nearby stadium, where police and CCG men were stationed to protect them. Once arriving, they found an empty patch in the field and settled down.

*BZZZZ*

With an opportunity to finally calm down and rationally organize the thoughts that had been stewing in his head since the body’s discovery that morning, Hisao found that he was not going to be making headway on his suspicions about the entire situation without help. So he called the one possibly available person he had on speed dial who was smart enough to help him out.

*BZZ-* <Hello?>

“Hi, Senpai. It’s me, Hisao,” he said nervously.

<Hisao! Hey! It’s been awhile!>

“Yeah, sorry I haven’t talked to you since I moved.”

<Ah, don’t worry about it. I’ve been doing alright, especially since I got into University. But that’s not why you’re calling, I take it.>

*Sigh* “No. I’m sure you’ve heard about the Kakujas who are swarming all over the place, right?”

<Even my best friend’s heard about it, that and this Ripper Ghoul or No-Life Queen or whatever the CCG have decided to call her that seems to be behind it. You’re calling because you want to compare notes, right?>

“Yeah,” Hisao replied, feeling a little relieved that he wasn’t the only one keeping his ear to the ground regarding her.

<So, whatcha got?>

“Here’s what I know. The No-Life Queen first appeared about two months ago, killing an unknown ghoul that had attacked Michi Matsuzaka, daughter of a CCG Investigator, on her way home from school, killing her two accompanying friends Asuna and Reiko. After that, the CCG had her under surveillance and protection for two weeks, to see if the ghoul came back for her. For two months since her debut, the No-Life Queen has been publically acknowledged as behind the deaths of over 60 ghouls in the 10th Ward, as well as the breakout and slaughter at the ghoul prison, Cochlea.”

<That’s what everyone knows. What do you have?>

“I believe that Michi Matsuzaka and the No-Life Queen are connected.”

<How do you know?>

“Before her attack, Michi came and left school accompanied by one of her parents or two or three of her friends. When the CCG protection and surveillance was lifted, she always arrived at and left from school by herself. Also, when I went to library in that time, I began noticing her more often. I haven’t associated much with her before all this, but I know that her tastes in reading revolved around police procedurals, legal drama, and computer technologies. Nowadays, I found that most of her nonfictional checkouts revolved around Japanese history, ghoul biology and psychology, and the occult, while she also at the same time checked out horror light novels and manga. And finally, the CCG officially declared Michi missing this morning, mere hours before our current crisis.”

<Not ironclad, but it does sound pretty convincing.>

“And that’s not all,” Hisao continued. “After her attack, she saw a dip in her popularity, but it returned when the No-Life Queen rose to notoriety in the public eye. She began going out of her way to use that popularity to associate herself with some of the really big names in my school. Katsuo Ishikawa, whose family owns a hospital. He and his family are widely rumored to be yakuza. He ran away from home less than two weeks ago. Masahiko Himura, the school’s star athlete in track and archery. He’s made such a name for himself in the school’s sports programs that most of us have forgotten he’s also the firstborn son of the CEO of a steel company. He disappeared mere hours before the Cochlea Incident and hasn’t been seen since. And Chiasa Hara, the daughter of a Diet member. A lot of guys are constantly vying to be her boyfriend because of her connections and supermodel physique; although there were a few rumors, her family was arranging something between her and Masahiko. She was found dead this morning at my school, which is right near the epicenter of the kakuja ambush.”

<Bravo, Hisao. That’s some nice detective work. Got anything else?>

“Sorry, I’m afraid I don’t. What about you?”

<To put it simply, what you’ve got merely scratches the surface of what’s probably going on. I noticed that something was off from the start when the No-Life Queen was first rising to prominence. People first got their information regarding her from data leaked from inside the CCG to the media. The CCG is notoriously tight-lipped and have a lengthy history of hiding information from the public until when they decide to release it, and people who leak information get severely reprimanded, if not fired or even jailed. And yet, the people were informed about her activities from a CCG source multiple times over the course of two months. A source that no one can track down.>

Hisao remembered that. “You’re right. There were a lot of people who also wondered that as well.”

<Also, until the Cochlea incident, she wasn’t even that significant when you get right down to it. There is the Gourmet, the Binge Eater and the One-Eyed Owl, individual ghouls who have been around for a long time and are notorious for especially or uniquely heinous crimes committed against humans. They also don’t make inter-ghoul violence into much of a spectacle outside of the occasional gang war. And if a ghoul was cannibalizing others at an increasing rate, it would be interpreted by the CCG as a cause for alarm, and that alarm would be relayed to the public.>

“Because ghouls cannibalize each other either because they’re desperate or because they want to become stronger. Some ghouls do it and even succeed in becoming kakujas. Desperate and/or stronger ghouls mean more dangerous ghouls.”

<Exactly. So that then begs the question: Why was there even a debate on Ripper in the first place? Inn trying to find this out, I discovered something very interesting: A lot of this debate was on social media, forum sites, and even radio stations.>

“So?” Hisao asked. What makes that so special?

<They’re all places where one can participate in conversations while remaining anonymous. Or, to be more direct, places where one can FAKE conversations entirely.>

Hisao’s eyes widened in shock. “You mean the whole thing with Ripper being a controversy was manufactured?!”

<Bingo. I talked with a few people online to take a look at how the Ripper debate progressed. A lot of the conversation in its later stages is organic and has distinct sides, but when you look at the first 48 hours of dialogue, it started off incredibly one-sided, as most debates revolving around the appearance of new ghouls often do. Then, suddenly, there was a literal flurry of posts that made a lot of different arguments that stood in favor of the Ripper. Right around the same time, social media was bombarded across the board with similar arguments, and callers phoned in to radio and talk shows to show their support. All of these came from untraceable accounts, anonymous contributors, and public outlets and numbers. This continued for the next few days, until the dialogue had evolved to the point that a healthy debate was actually going on among real people.>

“Wow,” Hisao marveled. “How come the CCG didn’t notice anything like this?”

<The CCG doesn’t investigate the Internet for ghouls all that often as most ghouls are either illiterate, unable to either access the Internet or utilize electronics, or are too cautious to risk being tracked online, thus resulting in very, very few ghouls who use the internet for very much, let alone for associating with other ghouls.>

“Guess no one really expected the No-Life Queen to have a crack media team at her command.”

<Indeed. This revelation has led me to believe a while ago that either the No-Life Queen has a larger organization under her command, or she has a bigger hunting ground than just the 10th Ward. So I started looking at reports from all of the Wards, and I’ve found that, since the Ripper’s arrival, the number of ghoul-related deaths actually fell a little bit and the number of ghouls dead from other ghouls saw a slight incline.>

“That’s not entirely convincing, and you know it,” Hisao noted.

<I know. Which is why I haven’t really said anything to the CCG. My job may sometimes take me through their doors, but I’m not very close to anyone there. Sure they’ve let look at one or two charts or maps they might have had lying around, but I definitely wasn’t going to be swaying very many opinions, and the current environment isn’t really going to allow me to make much of any headway in helping the CCG.>

“Why is that, Hide?”

<Probably because that by tomorrow, anything we’ve discussed just now will either be a given or a moot point.>

**Normal POV**

The two stood apart, stances ready, and eyes locked on one another. Uta’s kakugan on Masahiko’s vampiric slits.

Masahiko released the arrow.

Uta instantly dodged right.

The arrow sliced open his bicep as it shot by.

Uta was shocked. No matter how strong the archer or his bow, or how aerodynamic the arrow, there was no way possible for an arrow to move **that fast**. This slipped through Uta’s mind in an instant, and immediately charged at Masahiko, unleashing his kagune at the same time to attack him and protect himself from the next arrow.

Masahiko instantly noticed how Uta didn’t dodge until the moment he had let go of the arrow, and was now taking advantage of the gap between shots to launch his own attack. Pushing on his feet, he thrust himself backwards and out of range of Uta’s kagune, whipping out another arrow formed from the metal of Seiichi’s making and the souls of his consumed victims.

Uta saw Masahiko string another arrow as he back-stepped away. Once he saw it release, he twisted his body as he charged forward. The arrow impacted his kagune, causing his body to spin. Uta allowed the momentum to carrying his extending and thrashing kagune into the wall and floor, cracking both and flinging debris in Masahiko’s direction.

Masahiko dodged to the side to avoid the debris, only to be blindsided by one of Uta’s tentacles, smashing him into the opposite wall. For a moment, Uta had him pinned against it. Then Uta was surprised again when the second arrow that had been shot at him, the one now lodged in the tentacle that trapped Masahiko, had suddenly sprouted mouths and began chewing apart, and up, the tentacle.

Uta quickly tried to throw off the parasite, but to no avail, and allowed his kagune to dissolve, leaving it with nothing to eat. The thing then, to his morbid fascination, then launched itself back to Masahiko, who allowed it to crawl back up his sleeve and disappear. It was then Uta noticed that the hole he’d put through Masahiko’s torso was closing up.

And Masahiko had dropped his bow.

Seeing an opening, Uta plunged forward, not bothering to unleash his kagune to give him more speed.

His healing rendering him unable to dodge this attack in time, Masahiko dropped a longer arrow into his hand.

As Uta closed the gap, he thrust out both hands to rip directly into Masahiko’s body. At the same time, Masahiko lunged with his arrow like a rapier, spearing Uta’s left forearm straight through to his right elbow. Uta, unfazed by the pain, responded by kicking into the very center of where Masahiko was healing up. Masahiko grit his teeth, refusing to let out a scream.

Using the arrow for leverage, Masahiko threw Uta aside for several meters, sending him skidding away. Masahiko spotted his bow and dove for it. Uta regained his balance, noticed where Masahiko was headed, and broke the arrow over his knee-

KA-BOOM!

Having retrieved his bow, Masahiko turned to Uta and strung another arrow to bring to bear. He was grateful to have flung Uta as far as he had, otherwise he too would have been caught in the blast of his explosive arrow. Both of his arms and legs had been blown off, and the rest was unrecognizable-burnt meat. Unwilling to take chances, he fired the arrow into the body’s head, allowing it to shapeshift and begin eating the corpse.

Masahiko stood there as he watched his latest adversary be consumed, a small feeling of triumph welling up inside him. But it passed quickly, when he finished reviewing the battle in his head.

“Shit. Still not good enough. Just you wait you bitch. One day, I’ll own **your** life.”

**Kureo POV**

“HeeeeeeelllllllllllOOOOOOOooooooooooo,” went the siren call that echoed through the building. “I know you’re still heeeeeeeerrrrrrrrreeeeeee. Come out, come out, wherever you aaaaaaarrrrrrreeeeeee.”

_When will that damn wench shut up?_ Kureo thought angrily, but refusing to make a noise and give away his position. Turning to Amon, he saw his partner sweating profusely, but also holding himself back to keep quiet. Down the hall, he saw Shinohara and Juuzou in a similar state of quiet.

“Come ooooonnnnnnn! I know we don’t have all that much time left before I have to go away, but couldn’t you all at least spend it with little old me?”

Everything right now was the fault of that damn demon. He could almost feel the unnaturalness of that ridiculous sword she carried, and the speed and skill she wielded it with was equally inhuman. She had sliced up both his and Shinohara’s squads in literally seconds, deliberately leaving the four of them unscathed so that they could run away and she could take her time chasing and killing them.

“I don’t know about you guys, but this has to be the best day of my LIFE! It’s funny, don’t you think? Me, once an ordinary schoolgirl, but now with the power of my love, I AM INVINCIBLE!!”

In the brief time they had to set a trap (which felt an awful lot like running and hiding for some reason), Shinohara had explained to them that Chiasa Hara, the girl they were currently being chased by, had come to the CCG’s attention because she had been the murder victim of a suspected ghoul attack that had happened that morning. How she was now alive, well, and slaughtering ghoul investigators by the dozen was beyond him, especially considering that Chiasa had been a verified human for the entire course of her life.

“You know, the thought just occurred to me: you guys want to know how I got to be this way, huh? Well, I’m under direct orders not to spoil anything yet, but I can tell a vague story. Me and two of my friends were introduced to the No-Life Queen not very long ago. Well, more like stumbled across her having dinner.”

As they listened to her voice getting closer, Kureo felt a slight satisfaction that she was coming the way they had hoped. When they were initially getting into position, they figured that she would try to outwit them by racing for the ground floor first and clear the building one floor at a time by going up. Her voice emanating from below them had confirmed this suspicion. 

“Not gonna lie- the moment we met we thought we were dead. But she is a really sweet gal once you get to know her. Really sad too. Her favorite food used to be English meat pies, because they reminded her of her father, because they were his favorite food, too! But now, she can’t anymore. How sad is that!”

_Just keep blathering,_ Kureo thought. As interesting as her talk may or may not be, Kureo knew that ghouls who talked like that were not always on guard. He and the other three were positioned along the hallway that passed the stairwell that she was now walking up. They were just far enough away that she wouldn’t be able to immediately reach one pair or the other with her sword should she come out swinging, but just close enough that the four of them would be able to immediately close distance and get her without giving her time to properly react.

“But do you know why we joined her? Because she showed us something. She showed us the truth. The truth about not just her, but about our entire world. Something so huge it still boggles my mind. But she can’t tell anyone yet. Everything needs to be juuuu-”

She walks through the door they were waiting at, and the four of them spring to attack. Mado with one of his rinkaku quinques and Juuzou with his knives for range, Amon with his massive koukaku bludgeon and Shinohara with his Arata and a massive cleaver for melee.

She disappears, and their attacks hit air.

After a moment Mado sees her reappear behind Juuzou. Before a warning can be given, Juuzou spins around to attack with his borrowed quinque. Chiasa stops it with her bare hand, and smacks him on the head with the pommel of her sword, knocking him out.

Shinohara turns, and Amon takes a stand next to him. Chiasa marches forward, her impossibly long sword lashing out at both of them. The two are forced back as they are continually forced to parry her swipes and lunges, as she doesn’t give either of them any room to get past her blade.

Kureo decides to imitate Chiasa, and uses his quinque to tear open the floor, and he jumps down to the next floor below. With some quick thinking, he pinpoints where Chiasa is above him, he rushes forward and strikes out with his quinque. His action breaks open the ceiling, and he is rewarded with the sight of Chiasa stumbling back in surprise and Amon and Shinohara pressing the advantage.

Chiasa responds by using her sword to breach the barrier between floors again and jumps to the lower floor. Mado predicted this, and attacks just as she starts to fall. She brings up her sword to block, but the weight behind Mado’s blow while she isn’t entirely on her feet throws her back. Closing the distance, Mado attacks again, using the length of her blade against her and forcing her to block.

Mado continued to press on her, a glee welling up inside him as watched her face start to show a little panic. His confidence also began to rise when he saw Shinohara and Amon break through to their level behind Chiasa, boxing her in between them again. The sound they made caused her to look behind.

“Playtime’s over!” Mado shouted, as he swung his weapon for a finishing blow, Amon and Shinohara following up.

Chiasa smiled.

SHING!

All three men were still for a brief moment, as half of each of their quinques fell to the floor, a clean slice evident in each of them, as well as a large crack right along the front of Shinohara’s Arata.

And her blade was mere inches away from Mado’s sweat-soaked face. _DAMN IT, YOU RAT!_ Mado screamed in his head.

“You guys did pretty good,” Chiasa said smugly. “If I hadn’t decided to start taking you seriously right there at the end, you might have actually killed me. And for good this time.”

She pulled her blade back. “Unfortunately for me, I was ordered specifically to stay away from the regular CCG, and focus solely on the black coats. She’s probably gonna yell at me for killing some of you guys, and time is running out, so I guess I’ll be going. See ya.”

There is a sudden explosion of mist, and Mado stumbles back in surprise. When it clears, Chiasa is gone without a trace.

“This is bad,” Shinohara muses, as he looks at his two broken quinques.

“At least we learned something from this encounter,” Mado mused.

“What do you mean?” Amon said, the inquisitiveness in his voice expecting something not immediately obvious.

“You heard what that girl was saying, right?” Mado asked. Shinohara and Amon confirmed it. “Three things stood out to me. The first was that the girl was implying that her current condition was actually a recent occurrence. The second was that there are others like her. The third was that the No-Life Queen’s favorite food was an English meat pie.”

“But ghouls can’t eat human food,” Amon declared, his eyes widening as he too began to realize the implications.

“Which means that this No-Life Queen, this self-named Seras Victoria, was human at some point as well, and whatever happened to Chiasa to turn her into the monster she has become, the same thing happened to Seras as well.”

**Akumo POV**

He rushed out from his place in line, sliced off the leg he aimed at, and dashed to the other side of the impromptu line, narrowly dodging a fatal swipe by a massive arm as more screams emanated from the monstrous kakuja.

“Don’t lose focus!” he heard Kuroiwa shout. “We’ve almost got him down!”

The insectoid kakuja that Kuroiwa’s squad had been fighting for the last who-knows-how-long was now visibly unstable, as it was no longer growing new limbs, and its legs were too few to keep it suitably upright. The arms it was still swinging around were still dangerous, but they had been reduced from their initial four to two.

But while Akumo did his part in fighting the ghoul, the concerns that had been burdening him since yesterday were at the forefront of his mind. Worry over the Ripper threatening his family, sorrow over what it had done to his daughter, hatred for what it said to him and was doing to his city, and fear that he would be powerless to stop it.

“Matsuzaka!” Kuroiwa yelled.

He snapped out of his reverie, and looked to his immediate superior. At first, Marude and Yoshitoki had been tempted to keep Akumo from participating in the kakuja suppression efforts due to emotional instability, but Kuroiwa had learned about it at the last second and decided to take responsibility for him.

“DAMN YOU DOVES!” the monster shouted. “YOU DON’T KNOW THE FORCES YOU’RE DEALING WITH! SHE HAS AN ARMY! AN ARMY!!! AND IT WI-”

Matsuzaka and Kuroiwa struck as one, gutting open its front, and cutting off its head, as well as its speech. The body staggered, collapsed, writhed, and stilled.

Akumo looked to Kuroiwa, a distant look in his eyes that his superior noticed.

Kuroiwa simply sighed. “Good work, Akumo. But remember, you’re not the only one with a personal stake in this war. Don’t let that get in the way of your duty.”

Akumo had nothing to say in response.

**Arima POV**

Just before he could make his next move against his opponent, mentally dubbed ‘The Little Princess,’ he heard five explosions of glass come from the CCG 10th Ward offices, followed by five crashes into the asphalt of five, gigantic kakuja ghouls that now further scattered Arima’s squad and formed an improvised arena around him and the Little Princess.

“Don’t hurt Arima’s friends, my friends,” the girl ordered, confirming Arima’s observation. “Obaa-chan wants him alive when she plays with him for reals, and they are his best friends. He can’t play as good as he can without his best friends! No one can!”

She turned back to Arima. “Ready?” she asked.

“Yes,” he responded. Then he attacked.

While the Little Princess had been distracted with her ‘friends,’ he had switched IXA to offense, and sent a pillar shooting up right under her feet.

The girl was surprised, but through superhuman speed and strength was able to pull herself away from the brunt of the attack at the last second. It still clipped her and sent her spinning. It struck at her again, but she regained her balance and sped along the ring towards him, her axe at the ready.

Arima moved opposite her and fired at her with Narukami, forcing her to bob and weave between the shots. Then, while she continued to dodge his fire, he stopped and attacked again with IXA.

The pillar shot up at exactly the spot where she stood. But she moved forward just a little, allowing it to shoot up behind her, and then she leaped a bit, planted her feet on the briefly exposed tip of IXA, and pushed herself off, launching herself directly at Arima.

Briefly surprised at the move, Arima let go of IXA, and dodged to the side to avoid her massive battleaxe. He wanted to get a strike in on her, but her unexpected trajectory didn’t give him the opening to do so. Her strike missed, but it cracked open the street where they were fighting and sent debris flying at Arima, forcing him to back up again.

Sensing her advantage, the Little Princess attacked, swinging her axe at him to cleave him in half. Arima noted that she may have forgotten that her “Obaa-chan” wanted him alive for her own purposes, while at the same time ducking, side-stepping, and backing up from the girl’s lethal axe.

Soon, he noticed a pattern to her strikes, and allowed her to continue attacking like that. Then, once he had the opening he waited for, as small as it was, he whipped out Narukami in its ranged mode and fired a blast at the Princess.

Seeing the attack, she leaped high into the air, allowing the blast to dissipate below her and surprising Arima with the height of her jump. As she came down, she brought her axe into a two-handed grip above her head. As she closed in on Arima’s head, she swung her axe.

She missed him, and destroyed the street again.

Arima’s Narukami bisected her from her shoulder to the opposite hip.

Glancing at the surrounding kakujas, Arima saw that they didn’t make a move. Walking to IXA, he picked the weapon up and turned back to the Little Princess.

He gasped at what he saw.

He watched in horror as the lower half of the divided girl melted into blood, comingled with the blood and guts that had gushed from her body, and flowed on its own to the upper half. The Little Princess’s body began stirring, as it reconstituted itself from the top down, and not just the body, but also the dress she wore, and even the shoes.

Once finished, she stood up again, picked up her axe, and turned back to Arima with a smile on her face, looking for all the world like an innocent little girl playing dress-up. 

“That was a lot of fun, Arima-san!” she said cheerfully.

Arima’s face betrayed no emotion as he got into another ready stance, but after witnessing the level of this girl’s regenerative power, he was beginning to doubt the prospects of his victory.

She readied her axe and prepared to charge. “Let’s play some more!”

She pushed forward-

Arima noticed a red light zig-zag through the sky and plummet directly on top of the Little Princess, kicking up a cloud of dust in its impact.

Once it cleared, it revealed a buxom young woman dressed in a wine-red dress and a long, black trench coat. It was the exact person that he suspected had intervened. “Seras Victoria, I presume?” he asked politely.

“Indeed,” she replied in an ethereal voice with equal courtesy. She glanced at the kakujas surrounding them. “Disperse to the underground. Then return.” The five huge creatures scattered, leaving her and her small charge surrounded by Arima and his squad. But if the Little Princess was anything to go by, the No-Life Queen was far stronger, and could very well kill him outside of optimal conditions. So he continued the standoff, as did his subordinates.

“Awwwww,” the girl beneath Seras moaned. “But it’s not sunset yet. Five more minutes?”

“Nope,” Seras said, as she bent down and picked up the girl in the crook of her arm, while she still kept a hand on her axe.

“Your follower there tells me that you wish to fight me at some point,” Arima asked. “Is she correct?”

“Yes, but now is not a good time. My forces have all completed their given missions for today, so we are withdrawing now to regroup.”

Arima couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but he had a feeling that the No-Life Queen was being far more intentionally dramatic than she actually is. “Are you willing to tell me what those missions were?”

“Hmmmmm. In general, there were three secondary objectives. Weaken or destroy the rival ghoul organizations, compromise and weaken the CCG, and force out and slaughter V.”

Arima was genuinely shocked. The only ones who knew of V’s existence were its membership and the select few who managed to escape it. But one part of her statement intrigued him.

“You said those were your secondary objectives. What was your primary objective?”

Seras smiled. “To attract the **real** enemy.”

“The real enemy?” Arima inquired. “What kind of enemy would bring you to launch a swarm of kakuja ghouls in the limits of Tokyo for the sake of merely attracting him?”

“If you don’t know now, you will know soon enough.”

Then she leaped up and into the 10th Ward office building, disappearing from sight.

And then, for the first time since the kakuja crisis began, Arima allowed himself to relax.

**Matsuri POV**

Matsuri Washuu, a CCG Investigator on loan to Germany from Japan, was relaxing to hot cup of coffee when a text came to his phone. Opening it, he read the message:

<Banzai.>

His heart froze in his chest. He remembered very well the day when V had discerned that he deserved to learn about V’s deepest and darkest secret. A monster of such awesome power as to annihilate armies and cities on its own, and of such terrifying nature as to turn the world on its head should its existence ever be discovered.

While his credentials as an Investigator had justified his transfer to Europe, the real reasons for his presence was to maintain secret ties that the Washuu family held as well as to be within  reach of reactivating V’s trump card should the need ever be dire enough.

_It seems that the No-Life Queen is enough of a threat to warrant his deployment_ , Matsuri deduced.

Deciding to waste no more time in spite of his personal fears, he went to his computer, and immediately went about the business of purchasing a plane ticket to Budapest.


	14. Killing Time While There's Still Time to Kill

**Tsuneyoshi POV**

“…And that’s the full damage report,” Yoshitoki said, putting down the hastily typed and printed file.

For a brief moment, there was silence in the conference room, as Tsuneyoshi took the measure of each of the men seated around the table, each one trying to remain impersonal, but each betraying emotion in some way.

Amon’s clenched fists, Kuroiwa’s furrowed eyebrows and Marude’s signature scowl hinted at deep fury, sorrow, and frustration. The looks in Kureo Mado and Chuu Hachikawa’s eyes reflected the madness they held within. Renji Fujikawa, sitting beside Marude, was tapping his fingers on his table, showing not only worry, but also impatience. Shinohara’s face differed from the others by doing nothing to hide his sadness, but didn’t shed tears because he had already done so. Houji and Rin Yuki’s faces were dispassionate, and Arima’s was unreadably blank.

It was Matsuzaka who couldn’t contain himself, as he slammed his fist on the table, exclaiming “DAMMIT!”

All attention was focused on him as he continued ranting: “What the hell are we doing just sitting here and reading shitty reports that don’t change a damn thing that happened?! Hundreds of our brothers and sisters are dead, and that bitch is still out there waltzing around like she owns this town!”

Renji tried to placate him. “Please, Matsuzaka-san. We’re all trying our best to catch her-”

Akumo shot up to his feet, leaning over the table to glare directly at Renji. “THEN WHY THE FUCK ARE WE SITTING ON OUR ASSES INSTEAD OF POUNDING THE STREETS AND DOING OUR JOBS?”

“Stop it!” “Get a hold of yourself.” Kuroiwa and Shinohara got up from either side of him to grab and pull him back, as he continued to lunge forward at him.

“WHY THE FUCK DIDN’T YOU DO YOUR JOB THAT TIME AND HELP DAISUKE? HUH?”

Renji stumbled back in fear at the mention of Investigator Nakadai, who was the first CCG casualty of Seras Victoria. Although Renji had come out of the incident in one piece, Nakadai had been reduced to a quivering shell of his former self, and despite all of the top-notch care given to him, no progress had been made whatsoever. There wasn’t a single member of the CCG top brass that hadn’t visited him in some effort to either give comfort, garner information, or both, all to no avail.

“WHAT WERE YOU DOING YOU LITTLE SHIT WHEN THAT MONSTER FUCKED WITH MY FRIEND’S HEAD?”

“That’s enough, Associate Investigator Matsuzaka,” Tsuneyoshi finally spoke up, which got Akumo to shut up. “There is no one here who is not determined to capture and kill the No-Life Queen, and who doesn’t balk at the loss of so many comrades. Contain yourself, or you will be thrown out of this meeting and demoted.”

Akumo grit his teeth, continued to stare a hole through Renji’s head, but quieted down, shrugged off Shinohara and Kuroiwa, and sat down.

Tsuneyoshi groaned. “Yoshitoki,” he addressed him. “I should not have to discipline your men for you, and nor should you allow a crisis to get so out of hand that I must step in to aid in resolving it myself.”

Yoshitoki bowed his head. “I apologize Chairman, and you are correct.” He raised his head again. “Unfortunately, Seras Victoria poses the greatest threat the CCG has ever faced, and this includes the attacks by the One-Eyed Owl. She has an army of kakuja ghouls at her disposal, and lieutenants that could pose a danger to even Arima as individuals.”

The last bit piqued Tsuneyoshi’s interest, in more ways than one. “And what do we know about these… lieutenants?”

“I fought one during the recent battle,” Arima said. “In fact, I believe she was the same girl that greeted Shinohara outside a high school at the very onset of the battle.”

“I remember her,” Shinohara said, opening a file he had brought with him. “She even introduced herself to me and Juuzou, saying her name was Haruka Tsukino. I ran the name and what I kenw about her profile through a police database, and I found that this little girl was the daughter of Gai Tsukino, who was arrested less than a month ago for killing his wife and daughter, but while the wife’s body was found, Haruka’s wasn’t.”

“And she wasn’t the only lieutenant in that battle either,” Mado spoke. “I and my partner, Amon, faced off against another one alongside Shinohara and Juuzou. You said that she was Chiasa Hara, the girl whose body you were at that school to begin with, yes?”

“Yes,” Shinohara said, closing the first file and pulling out several more. “Her name was Chiasa Hara, the daughter of Mikado Hara, the Diet member.”

“Great,” Matsuzaka groaned. “As if politicians weren’t annoying enough already. If Haruka’s anything to go by, where’s Hara’s body?”

“Gone,” Shinohara replied. “The coroner’s car transporting her body was attacked along the way. There’s almost nothing left of the vehicle, the men driving it are torn to pieces, and the body’s nowhere to be found.”

“Let’s not forget Katsuo Ishikawa,” Amon butted in. “He was the one who delivered Seras’s video to us, and no one we’ve been able to contact that we know he has connections to, has seen him for weeks now.”

Mado continued. “Ishikawa and Hara are also both known for being friends with another missing student from their school, Masahiko Himura. And all three had increased contact with Michi Matsuzaka, who we all know the No-Life Queen had… taken a keen interest in.”

Akumo’s ire visibly rose from his increased breath, but he controlled himself. “You should watch yourself, Mado. Unlike the other four, we have Michi’s body, she gave it back to us herself, to make a mockery of me and the CCG.”

Mado’s eyes narrowed at him. “And you should do the same, Matsuzaka. We lost everyone stationed at the 7th Academy to Seras’s army, and my daughter was one of them. Who knows what happened there? They could be dead for all we know.”

Tsuneyoshi noticed a slight cringe from Renji.

“So what you men are saying,” Marude said. “Is that Seras is capable of turning humans into ghouls?”

“More than that,” Mado continued. “During our fight with Chiasa Hara, her loose lips revealed to us that Seras may well have been human at one time herself.”

Marude’s face contorted in a weird mix of discovery and revulsion. “As fascinating as that is, we only have three days left before Seras’s deadline. We won’t have time to study her origins until we have her corpse on a dissection table.”

“We have something far more worrying we must handle, I’m afraid,” Arima stated.

Everyone’s attention turned to him, and Tsuneyoshi mused on how Arima wasn’t usually one for speaking up.

“When I was fighting the Little Princess – which is how I dubbed Haruka Tsukino during it – she let slip that she had been told I was coming by ‘Mr. Dove.’ In light of the No-Life Queen’s ability to manipulate public perception of herself and her ability to infiltrate our most secure facilities and stretch our resources to their limits, I have reason to believe that she has planted moles within our organization.”

This drew gasps and exclamations from all around, not the least of which being Yoshitoki and Tsuneyoshi themselves. The two shared a quick glance, where they wordlessly carried the same sentiment to one another. During such a witch hunt, all it would take is one eagle-eyed individual catching wind of the wrong scrap of information at the wrong time and their whole charade would fall to pieces.

Tsuneyoshi drew in a deep breath to steady himself, and then seized control of the situation. “SILENCE!”

There was, and all eyes on him.

“I understand that we have a grave crisis on our hands. Indeed, it is the most dire position we have ever faced. For this reason, I have contacted Matsuri in Germany and ordered him to return to Japan.”

“Matsuri?” Marude wondered. “Chairman, with all due respect to the man’s skills and results from his time there, what can he bring to resolve this situation with the No-Life Queen that we don’t have already?”

“It’s less about bringing him home, as it is him activating another agent we have on standby.”

Everyone perked up at this, even Yoshitoki. “Chairman, this agent… who is he? Do you think he knows something about Seras?”

“No. But he is stronger than even Arima.”

Everyone at the table gaped or gasped at the revelation, and even Arima showed some surprise.

“If this agent is even stronger than I am,” Arima mused, “and he is in your employ, then why isn’t he here now?”

Tsuneyoshi sighed as he directed his attention to Arima. “Because he is insane. If I were to compare the two of you, you are like a katana in the hands of a skilled warrior. Refined, graceful, durable, obedient, and sharp and sure in your killing blow. He on the other hand is a bomb. You throw or set him in the midst of your enemies, and then run away to escape from the blast radius.

“His madness drives him to kill anything in his path, be they friend or foe. His only loyalty aside from himself is to the Washuu clan, and that loyalty is tenuous at the best of times. He is a well-kept secret, to be reserved for only the most desperate of times.”

“How long until he arrives?” Matsuzaka asked.

Tsuneyoshi replied, “I ordered Matsuri to collect him last night, so it should be one or two days from now before they arrive.”

“That’s cutting it awfully close,” Amon said.

“But it means we will finally get this shit show over with,” Hachikawa finally pitched in.

“But before any of that, what’s the situation on the ground right now?” Houji asked. “Everyone in Tokyo already knows about the battle we waged yesterday, humans and ghouls alike. How have the ghouls responded to all this?”

“I’ve been getting word from patrols since yesterday, and I have to say it scares me,” Marude said.

“How active are the ghouls?” Tsuneyoshi asked him.

“They’re almost as silent as the grave,” Marude rested his head in his hands. “Usually, when a big operation is underway in another part of Tokyo, ghoul activity tends to spike in other wards for a while. But ever since the battle, ghoul activity all over Tokyo has fallen through the floor. Almost all of the patrols saw no ghoul activity at all.”

“Any reason why?” Mado asked.

“I think the No-Life Queen has most of the ghouls of Tokyo in a vise. One patrol reported a ghoul actually lead them into an alley only to prostrate itself in front of them and beg to be taken away. Before they could ask why, something spooked it and it ran away. When the patrol found it again, they found a kakuja swallowing the bottom half of its body. Before they could call for backup, it simply ran away.”

“So basically,” Shinohara weighed in. “The No-Life Queen is now effectively in control of the entire ghoul underworld?”

Marude nodded gravely. “She is the queen of Tokyo’s ghouls. And I don’t think she’s going to be stopping anytime soon.”

Tsuneyoshi merely hung his head, before speaking again. “Now you see why I am bringing in Agent Alpha. Seras believes that she can not only conquer the ghouls of Tokyo, but its humans as well. Should she even attempt this, there will be chaos across the world. She must be crushed as soon as possible, before this can happen. Prepare yourselves and your men. I have done all I can to give aid. You are all dismissed.”

Everyone stood up and bowed, and each of them dispersed, until Tsuneyoshi was left alone.

You did a good job, familiar, for not revealing the truth about ‘Agent Alpha’ or our Mistress’s insiders, his master communicated to him.

“What else do you expect me to do?” he replied. “The moment the Progenitor arrives, it won’t matter. I don’t care if I or even my clan falls now. It will be satisfying enough to see you and every other vampire purged from this earth.”

Seiichi Nakagawa’s laughter could be heard through the indirect mental link forged with the medium of the JSDF soldier that had bound Tsuneyoshi as a familiar. It won’t matter what happens then. His coming is the whole point of everything our Mistress has done up to now, and when he arrives, the whole world will know the truth of everything.

**Renji POV**

With the conference finally over, Renji decided to head to his office to get some ‘work’ done. Along the way, his mind was a swirl of emotions from the meeting. Annoyance at being forced by Marude to attend for reasons never made known to him. Fury at Haruka for letting slip the fact that he was in the CCG, even if she never dropped his name. And a feeling of being slighted by Matsuzaka for blowing up at him like he had and forcing him to strain his cover act of being meek and mild.

He had to control himself as he arrived at his door, being careful as he opened it to not his emotions get the better of him and cause him to crush the doorknob. Walking in-

Renji, a voice came to his head.

He instantly perked up at the telepathic message, and nearly stumbled into a filing cabinet.

A little warning next time, Rin, he almost conveyed a growl in his response.

I want to talk to you.

About what? He sat down, turned on his computer, and began reviewing case files.

About how we’re going to handle the CCG scouring their ranks for us, she said.

With the way things were going with Seras, it was inevitable that the CCG would start looking for moles.

That’s part of why I made Investigator Houji my familiar. He’s still human, but completely under my sway, so I have an impenetrable alibi.

Smart move, he said. I probably should’ve done something similar, but I never found a right time to do it.

And because you were there with Nakadai when Seras inserted that youkai into him, I’m willing to bet the reason that Marude keeps you around so much lately is because he suspects you of being one of Seras’s collaborators.

The thought struck him like a bolt of lightning, and suddenly the attitude of all of the Investigators toward him of late made sense. All he could do was sigh, as Seras had warned him  of this possibility happening a while back.

If I hadn’t beaten her to a pulp once before, I probably would have asked her permission for when everything went south, he said.

He could already imagine Rin’s cocked eyebrow at the statement. Okay… how did you pull that off, provided you’re not bullshitting me?

Well, it’s actually a simple story…

_Flashback Begins_

Renji groaned in pain as his head finally stopped ringing after Ripper had caught him off guard. Rolling onto his chest, he found himself at the top of the stairs he had been facing only a few minutes before. Looking down them, he saw his superior spread-eagled on the floor, and a blank, terrified look frozen on his face.

Suddenly, Renji felt something pin his arms down, and, himself feeling rather frightened, looked up to see Ripper leaning over him, her scarlet eyes seemingly gazing into his soul. He writhed about, trying to find some way to free himself, but the monster’s arms were like steel, and would not be moved.

“Why struggle, when you know the end has arrived?” she asked, with a crocodile grin across her face.

Renji refused to stop fighting, and he locked eyes with her, refusing to look away. That seemed to only make her grin wider.

“You have definitely got balls, looking me in the eye like that. Now if only you could actually fight back, everything would be a lot better for me.”

Her face leaned in uncomfortably close to his, their noses almost touching, and some of her bangs falling in his face. “How are you going to do it? Do you have any fight left at all?”

He responded by snapping his head forward and biting her lips, banging against her head at the same time and rattling both of their teeth.

“YOW!” she yelled in pain and surprise, letting go of Renji’s arms out of reflex to cover her face. Renji seized the moment to swing his fist and land a very satisfying haymaker on her face. The blow knocked her away from him, and he took the opportunity to get on top of her and throw even more punches at her head, getting her blood splattered, bones broken and teeth flying out.

But her physical prowess still won out, as her fist flew in from nowhere and into his gut, sending him into the air before falling flat on his back. He gasped for air and struggled to stand, but watched in disbelief as the disparate smithereens of the Ripper’s face flew back to their point of origin and undid all of his work before his eyes.

She smiled again, and a very genuine one at that. “That was very good. There’s someone I know who I would have loved to beat the shit out of the moment I met him. He made me what I am today.”

He froze, as she stepped forward and her left arm dissolved into writhing shadows that slithered out and wrapped around him to hold him securely. Her right arm stretched forward to gently caress his cheek, as she leaned forward.

“There’s a little bit of you that’s like me. So I will make you even more like me.”

Then her head snapped forward and sank fangs into his neck.

_Flashback Ends_

Are you sure you’re not bullshitting me? Rin asked.

I may be a little hazy remembering what she actually said, he admitted. He then noticed A notification that popped up in the bottom left-hand corner of his computer screen. But that was pretty much it. Although adjusting to being a vampire afterwards was a real wake-up call.

Oh don’t I know it, she said, a clear sense of remembrance in her ‘voice.’ Putting up with the Sun every day is a huge pain, but it’s worth it for the superpowers.

Renji clicked on the notification to find a link to a news article online. You know, I ‘ve wondered. How did Seras turn you? I know that she couldn’t have done it herself because she’s a girl. 

Funny story, it was actually Seiichi that turned me. Seras apparently wanted another CCG Investigator turned, but didn’t want you to do it because someone might have found out, so she used the old geezer who she had randomly come across and turned to find one, and he knew that I lived literally across the street from him. So Seras approached me, made me an offer that I couldn’t refuse, and then brought me over to Seiichi to get turned.

Nice story, he said, just as he was getting into the meat of the article he was reading. Although I should tell you I just came across something a little more concerning right now.

What’s that?

Oh, just a small article that alleges that Seras is trying to build a ghoul army to take over the city of Tokyo to instigate a global ghoul revolution.

There was a moment of silence on the other end. That could be a problem…

Renji looked as the comment section for the article immediately began exploding with notifications of new entries, and the live reader counter was jumping thousands of readers higher every second. No, it IS a problem.

**Hisao POV**

*Ring-a-ling Ring-a-ling-Ring-a-ling*

“Come on, pick up the phone, pick up the phone, dangit,” Renji growled, as he paced like a caged tiger.

Everything was going to Hell around him. No. Everything had already gone to Hell long ago and it was only lately that he had truly appreciated the full extent of the chaos around him. He had made an obsession wall on the side of his room, where he tacked on everything that he could possibly gather on Michi Matsuzaka.

*Ring-a-ling Ring-a-ling Ring-a-ling*

Internet sites where she frequented and had built elaborate profiles. Online forum threads about the No-Life Queen. Strange rumors floating everywhere about everything from demons roaming the subways to the yakuza acting weird. Local newspaper clippings for her accomplishments in a computer fair and a chess competition. CCG public statements about her father, Akumo Matsuzaka. A picture of her sister, Mika, as part of a graduating class of CCG cadets. Pictures of her friends she’s associated with since her attack: Touka Kirishima, Yoriko Kosaka, Chiasa Hara, Katsuo Ishikawa, Masahiko Himura, and Nanami Iseri, who he was trying to call up at the moment.

 *Ring-a-ling Ring-a-li-* <Hello?>

“Nanami!” he cried out. “Oh, thank goodness I called you.”

He had kicked himself for not talking to the girl at any point before today. He needed more information about Michi Matsuzaka in order to find her, and who knew her better than her best friend? Unfortunately, he had no social life whatsoever, so the idea never occurred to him before today, when school had been closed due to the kakuja invasion the day before.

<U-uh-um… Who’s this?>

_I’m probably gonna sound like a creepy stalker,_ he realized, his face blushing at his mistake. “I- I’m Hisao Nonaka. I’m your classmate. I just wanted to ask you about-”

_< Nanami!_> A voice yelled in the background from Nanami’s phone. < _Have you packed your things? >_

<Yes Dad!> she called back.

< _Then come on! We’ve wasted enough time as it is! Let’s go! >_

<Sorry.> *Click.*

Hisao simply stood there for a moment. _It seems Nanami’s family’s also been spooked by the article,_ he mused.

He chucked the phone into his bed, causing it to both to floor with a clatter. “Fffffff-” he grabbed his head in his hands and nearly screamed in frustration. He held himself back from doing so, as it would have attracted the undue attention of his mother, who was actually home from work for a change.

It would have ruined all of the fun he was having.

**Touka POV**

“Thanks for coming to the library with me, Touka” Yoriko beamed at her.

“It’s no problem,” Touka replied, returning her smile.

Because school had been closed unexpectedly on a test day, the two had decided to take the day to spend time together as well as get in some extra studying. Although the sky had been cloudy and threatening rain all day, nothing could stop Touka from enjoying the time she spent with Yoriko, as they walked along the gray sidewalk.

But Touka could see that Yoriko’s smile was just a little too bright, and she was clenching her bag just a little too tightly.

“Hey, uh, are you doing alright?” Touka worried. “I mean yesterday was pretty shocking for you.”

Yoriko’s face faded a little at that, and her grip tightened. “Yeah, it still is. Even now, I can barely believe everything that happened.”

Touka felt a weight settle in her gut. One of things she loved about Yoriko was how, for just a little while, she could pretend to be human, do and be something everyone called normal, and leave the worries of her daily life behind. Even if she had to put up with the smell of human food that she carried around like a wet blanket.

“I’ve only ever seen ghouls on the news, you know? They’re like so many other things you read about in books and see on TV. They’re real, but they exist somewhere else, and it’s never your problem.”

The topic of ghouls almost never came up when talking with her, but she always felt a twinge a pain. She wished that either she was human, or that she could share her secret with Yoriko.

“I guess I always thought that it would never happen to me.”

She knew deep down that would never get either granted.

Touka stepped in front of Yoriko, grabbed her shoulders and looked her in the eyes. “Listen. I know things are bad right now-”

“Hey there, girlies!” a voice called out.

The two turned to see a large man dressed like a janitor approaching them with a bucket in one hand, a greeting in the other, and a flu mask on his face.

“I saw you two walking alone, and I have to tell you, it’s a little dangerous this time of year.”

Touka looked at Yoriko and saw that the girl was suspicious. A suspicion that Touka’s smell confirmed.

“Thank you for your generous offer,” Touka started pulling Yoriko away.

He was a ghoul.

“But I think we can take care of ourselves just fine, thank you.” Touka turned and moved to help Yoriko run away.

Another ghoul stepped out from the alleyway ahead of them and charges at them.

“Oh please! I don’t think you can!” he slobbered and reached out, preparing to tackle them.

Touka lets go of Yoriko’s hand and runs in front of her at the man. Just as he gets within reach, she twirls like a top and slams her heel into the side of his side of his head, knocking him unconscious and to the side.

Yoriko catches up, and she has a look of amazement in her eyes. Touka takes a look at the other guy, and he has paused in his pursuit. In fact, now he looks terrified.

“You’re one of hers…” he whispers, but Touka’s enhanced hearing picks it up. He then turns and runs away.

Touka lets out a breath she didn’t know she was holding.

“Wow, Touka!” Yoriko exclaims, throwing her arms around her friend in a surprise hug. “That was so amazing! I didn’t know you did martial arts!”

Touka chuckled nervously. “It’s not all that much, really.”

_Just glad those guys were so weak. If what that guy said before he ran meant what I think it did, then Seras must really be making things difficult for guys like this._

“We should probably get out of here,” Touka said.

“Don’t you think we should call the police?” Yoriko asked.

Needless to say, Touka did not want to get involved with the police. “Maybe l-”

A dart punctured Yoriko’s neck.

One punched through Touka’s neck at the same time.

Both girls slapped a hand to their necks, and both of their eyes grew in horror.

Touka was barely able to process how the tranquilizer dart that hit her was tailor-made for ghouls just as she passed out before hitting the ground.

**Amon POV**

The entire day had been a mess. The meeting with the other Investigators in the morning had not been very informative beyond the fact that the enemy appeared to be able to turn humans into ghouls and there might be traitors in the CCG, both thoughts sticking in his head like dog poop on a shoe. Then, when he went on patrol with Kureo Mado, the man’s mood was unusually dour with his daughter having gone missing in action from the surprise attack on CCG Academy 7 during the Kakuja Invasion. Their patrols also yielded nothing, without them even seeing the backside of a ghoul at all.

The two returned to the CCG offices without having accomplished anything.

“Hard to believe that the ghouls could be this quiet, huh sir?” he asked his partner as he was finishing typing up his report.

“Yes,” Mado replied. “They are all afraid of the No-Life Queen, and the army she has at her beck and call. They can also sense the coming storm, and are waiting for it to blow over. None but the truly desperate are going to be out and about at this time.”

“Indeed,” Amon agreed. “Have you read that article online that has everyone in a panic?”

“Yes. But I think it’s rubbish.”

“Why is that?”

“I can’t explain,” Mado said, leaning back in his chair. “It’s something about that woman’s actions. I can tell that she has a reason for everything she’s doing, but for the life of me I can’t tell what.”

“What do you mean, sir?” Amon asked.

“Well, I can tell you for certain that her aim is not conquest, like that article insinuates. If that was really her goal, she would have used that army of ghouls to ambush every single CCG branch office in the city at once. She has more than enough power to launch a crippling blow to our organization, but she’s holding back and I can’t figure it out for the life of me.”

Amon digested these new thoughts for a moment. “Why would you go through all the trouble of building an army strong enough to destroy your mortal enemy but then reveal it to them and hold yourself back from killing them entirely?”

The door to their office burst open to allow a breathless Shinohara to rush in, startling Amon and Mado to their feet. “Amon! Mado! Get to the conference room! Now!”

“What’s happened, sir?” Amon asked.

“We just received a video message from the No-Life Queen! We know where the missing cadets and officers from Academy 7 are!”

**Akira POV**

As Akira Mado regained consciousness, she was surprised that she wasn’t suffering from a blistering headache, considering that she was currently resting upon a cold stone floor. As she got up, she looked herself over, only to find herself in the same outfit she had been wearing the other day when the CCG Academy had been attacked.

_Wait, did he-?_ She patted her neck, looking for bite marks. For a moment she seemed relieved, but then discovered her skin was a lot colder than it should be. After putting her fingers to her artery, she suddenly realized that she felt no pulse. A moment later, she found that she wasn’t breathing either.

_He did. I’m a vampire now._

Her world came crashing down around her, as it sank in that she was now not only clinically dead, but also now transformed into a monster that wasn’t supposed to be real and was regarded as one of the most terrifying ever imagined. The faces of everyone she knew and loved flitted through her mind, leaving her at a loss as to how she was going to explain herself to any of them if they found her.

Then she remembered that she knew who had done the deed to her, and she knew who he was working for.

She repressed her fear and forced herself to calm down. She then began looking at her surroundings to try to discern what was going on.

There was one flickering bulb hanging from the ceiling, a vent near the ceiling to circulate air that was far too small to fit through, four stone walls, and a single door that appeared to be missing its handle.

The voices she was hearing around her told her she wasn’t alone, as she found four more people in the room.

“What’s going on? Who are these people? What are we going to do?”

Two of them were schoolgirls, judging by their uniforms, with one of them having a curious head of purple hair, who was being clutched to like a life preserver by her orange-haired friend.

“Oh my God, this can’t be happening. What have they done to them? Where are Goro? Yui? Chiasa?”

Another was an older woman with a bob of brown hair, who looked to be in her mid-thirties, who wore a casual pink sweater over a white blouse and red maxi-skirt.

“No signal, no way to contact the outside. What is that demon planning?”

And finally there was another young man dressed in sharp business attire, with a quinque suitcase next to him. Looking to her own side, she found that she had one as well.

As she got to her feet, the other people noticed her, with the apparent CCG officer reacting first.

“Ma’am! You’re awake! Are you alright?” He reached a hand out to help steady her.

She gracefully brushed it away. “I’m fine, thank you. I am First Rank Investigator Akira Mado. Who are you?”

The young man snapped a salute. “Cadet Yuno Sugimoto.”

Akira sighed, disappointed that he was only a cadet. She turned to the others. “What about the rest of you?”

The orange-head spoke first. “I-I’m Yoriko Kosaka. And this is my friend, Touka Kirishima.”

The purple-haired girl’s face grimaced slightly, and then she nodded. “Hi.”

The woman was last, and she bowed slightly in greeting. “I’m Sakura Hara. It’s good to meet you.”

<Very nice, you’re all awake,> came a voice from all around them, startling each of them.

It was then that Akira belatedly noticed that there were four speakers set in the walls just below the ceiling.

<To all 50 of my unwilling contestants, I’ve got some news for you.>

“Fifty of us? There’s more people?” said the orange-head.

<I’ve taken the whole lot of ya and split you into ten groups and scattered you to every corner of the Tokyo underground. And when I say underground, I don’t mean like the British subway system, I mean all over the whole 24th Ward. Your job is to get back home alive and well. And the job of the monsters crawling through every nook and cranny down there is to make shish kebab out of your internal organs.>

The door then opened on its own, revealing a dark and ominous corridor.

<Luckily for you peeps, however, there is nothing you aren’t allow to do. You can either split up and all gun for the surface as fast as humanly possible or join up with the other groups and go dungeon crawling for loot. You can stay down there as long as you like, and you can use anything you get your sweaty fingers on. This is survival of the fittest at its finest, and the greatest form of entertainment ever imagined! So go out and explore the wild bl- black yonder! Wow, that does not roll off the tongue at all.>

Each of the five people in the room looked at one another, uncertain of what to do. Akira decided to take the lead, by stepping forward to the entrance first.

<Oh yeah, there’s one more tiny little detail you peeps should know about. There’s a ghoul in each of your groups. Have fun!>

Everyone froze stiff from fear. Even Akira.


End file.
